This felt like last spring.
Defense, grit, tenacity — adjectives that haven’t been used much about these Knicks.
In their playoff opener, they embodied the injury-depleted team of a year ago.
The Knicks took a big right hand and got back up, flooring the young upset-minded Pistons with a scintillating fourth quarter after it looked like they may fall behind early in this opening-round playoff series.
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Instead, a rousing 21-0 run paved the way to an encouraging 123-112 victory at a rocking Garden. Game 2 is Monday night.
“It turned rather quickly,” Jalen Brunson said. “It was a quick turnaround, and I’m just happy with the way we played in the fourth.”
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Brunson shook off a shaky start to score 34 points along with eight assists. He appeared to injure his ankle in the third quarter but returned with new purple sneakers and found his game, scoring 12 points in the final 8:27.
“I think he grabbed his cape,” coach Tom Thibodeau joked.
Karl-Anthony Towns chipped in 23 points, 11 rebounds, five assists, four steals and two blocks in his playoff debut as a Knick, and OG Anunoby had 23 points, seven rebounds and five steals.
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It was defense that turned the game for the Knicks, who held the Pistons to 21 points in the fourth quarter and forced nearly as many turnovers (six) as they allowed field goals (seven).
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The period began with a five-second violation by Detroit and a shot-clock violation — a preview of the final quarter to come. Pistons turnovers and missed shots turned into Knicks runouts. Cameron Payne and Josh Hart came alive, the two combining to score 19 of the Knicks’ 40 fourth-quarter points.
“The key was Cam Payne,” Brunson said. “The violation in the beginning of the fourth quarter, the way we started the first couple minutes, that was the key.”
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Long Island’s Tobias Harris scored 25 points for the Pistons, although only three came in the second half. Cade Cunningham added 21 points and 12 assists but shot 8-of-21 from the floor. Anunoby limited the Pistons star, who also had six turnovers, in the first playoff game of his career.
Payne started the stunning run with a 3-point play, Brunson then scored in the lane, and Payne sank a 3-pointer to tie it.
After an acrobatic left-handed shot off the glass by Brunson, Payne connected again from deep.
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Towns came up with steals on the next two Pistons possessions, each turnover leading to a Brunson layup. The lead was now nine.
“Not bad for a non-defensive player,” Towns said with a smirk.
Considering the Pistons shot 50 percent from the 3-point line (9-of-18), Brunson started the game 2-of-13 from the field and Harris was unconscious in the first half en route to 22 points, the Knicks were in a good spot at the break.
They led by two, despite foul trouble for Hart and problems defending the 3.
The Pistons’ 11 turnovers certainly helped the orange and blue in what was a disjointed first half.
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They started by racing out to a 10-3 lead, immediately gave up a 21-10 burst and were blitzed by Harris for 13 points in the second quarter, including a 3-pointer right before the horn.
By comparison, he managed a grand total of 54 points in last year’s playoff series against the Knicks as a member of the 76ers.
The Pistons started the second half by scoring on their first eight possessions and, on the strength of a 15-4 burst, they took a four-point lead.
Malik Beasley extended it to seven later in the quarter, and Detroit entered the final stanza up eight.
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It was a particularly poor defensive period for the Knicks, who let the Pistons shoot an absurd 63.6 percent in the frame (14-of-22).
The Knicks turned up the intensity at the outset of the fourth quarter, forcing turnovers on the Pistons’ first two possessions.
They outscored them 15-7 over the first 4:13 of the period, pulling even on a Payne 3-pointer with 7:47 left.
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The run was only starting.
Soon, the Knicks would be ahead and the Garden was as loud as it had been all evening.
“I just think we were connected, and we were getting stops out there and just finding a way to get out in transition after we got the ball,” Brunson said. “Just the way we played defensively was key — especially in the fourth quarter.”
