Josh Hart’s layup with 2.8 remaining sees Knicks survive Pistons upset bid, 113-111

Down by one with under thirty seconds to play, a sequence involving a missed Jalen Brunson three-pointer and three straight steals, led to Josh Hart making the game-winning layup with 2.8 seconds to play for the Knicks to steal an ugly 113-11 win over the lowly Detroit Pistons on Monday night at Madison Square Garden.

New York improved to 35-23 on the season, just their second win in their last seven games. Detroit fell to 8-49 for their sixth-straight defeat.

Here are the takeaways…

– For the Knicks, Monday was the second game of a stretch of playing eight of nine at home, a good time to shake off a run of poor form. But this stretch of games sees them play seven of those games against teams with above .500 records. However, the Pistons, the league’s worst team on the first night of a back-to-back, represented a great opportunity for a get-right game. That didn’t happen.

The message entering the game from head coach Tom Thibodeau was about avoiding the trap game: “That’s the challenge of our league. Every night, you’re gonna be challenged in a different way… Everyone in this league is capable of beating you.”

His team spent the game proving him a prophet.

– Former No. 1 overall pick Cade Cunningham set the tone early, scoring eight of Detroit’s first 14 points on his way to a perfect first half (6-for-6 from the floor) for 20 points, 5 assists, 2 rebounds and 2 blocks.

For the Knicks it was another day of Brunson having to carry the load offensively, scoring 12 of New York’s first 16 points. The Knicks shrugged off some early struggles for a 29-27 first quarter lead.

A 9-0 run to start the second was part of a 28-10 New York run to build out a 38-27 lead. But on several occasions, the home team’s 12-point lead would slip to single digits and eventually evaporate entirely. But Brunson again had answers: an old-fashioned three-point play and a Hart three (from Brunson’s fifth assist of the game) got the Knicks a bit of rhythm to end the first half up 62-58.

– The unevenness continued after the break. The Knicks would build a 10-point lead capped by a Donte DiVincenzo three to give him 16 of the game. But a second delay of game infraction resulted in a team technical and a 5-0 Pistons run.

Brunson would hit a step-back three and Hart knocked in a line drive to push the lead back to double-digits. DiVincenzo would get another lay-up to give him 10 in the quarter and the Villanova trio accounted for 63 of the Knicks’ 92 points through three.

– That was when the revenge trio took over. “You do got a little extra oomph when you wake up in the morning and come in and try and go off against the team that traded you,” ex-Knick Quentin Grimes said at shootaround earlier on Monday.

Grimes and Evan Fournier had slow starts in the first half (accounting for just two points in 16 total minutes), but the three ex-Knicks had all of the Pistons’ 12 points to start the fourth as the lead shrunk to as little as two with 7:15 to play, with Grimes knocking down a pair of threes, Fournier – who was getting booed with nearly every touch earlier in the game – adding a three of his own and Malachi Flynn scoring adding three.

Grimes would knock down three free throws to tie the game with 5:23 to play. A few minutes later another three from the former New York first-round pick gave the Pistons a 106-104 lead with 3:49 to play, their first lead since the first period.

It was a short-lived lead, as Achiuwa’s putback tied it and after a pair of Cunningham mises, Brunson would make a driving layup and a jumper to put New York back up by four

Grimes would give Detroit a one-point lead with 37 seconds to play on a driving layup. That set up the wild sequence that involved the Brunson missed shot, an Isaiah Hartenstein steal, a Divencenzo turnover, and an apparent missed foul call on DiVincenzo led to a Brunson steal and Hart’s game-winner.

– Brunson finished with 35 points on 11-for-26 shooting (10-for-11 from the free throw line) with 12 assists and two steals in 40 minutes. Hart added 23 points on 8-for-17 shooting with eight rebounds, six assists and two steals in 42 minutes. DiVincenzo finished with 21 points on 8-for-13 (5-for-10 from three) with three rebounds, four assists and two steals in 32 minutes.

– For Detroit, Cunningham had 32 points on 10-for-19 shooting with eight assists and five rebounds in 36 minutes. Grimes added 14 points on 4-for-9 shooting with three rebounds, three blocks, two assists and a steal in 14 minutes off the bench. And Fournier added seven points on three-for-five shooting in 20 minutes.

– Before the game, Thibs said “Every game counts the same, so they don’t give you extra points for beating this team.” Fortunately for the Knicks, they will not get docked anything for winning by the skin of their teeth against a young, re-building Detroit squad

HighlightsWhat’s next

The Knicks are right back in action on Tuesday night at MSG against the New Orleans Pelicans for a 7:30 p.m. tip.