DETROIT — Tom Thibodeau likes to lecture his team that every player who makes it to the NBA has to be great to get there, so ignore the names on the jersey, the pedigree of the opposition, and just play hard.
And for much of the night Wednesday at Little Caesars Arena his point could be debated. But not because of the performance of the no-name assemblage of players that the Detroit Pistons put on the floor, but because of the awful, lifeless effort by his own most heralded players.
Facing a team decimated by COVID-19 and other injuries, only able to prevent the game from being postponed by stocking the roster with eight hardship exception additions, the Knicks found themselves being run off the court in the third quarter when Thibodeau lifted his starters and let the bench carry the day. With an infusion of energy that had been noticeably lacking, the Knicks came from behind for a 94-85 win over the Pistons, avoiding an embarrassing defeat.
Instead the Knicks escaped with back-to-back wins, none that you would want replayed as MSG Classics. They came against severely-shorthanded Timberwolves and Pistons teams.
Alec Burks led the Knicks with 34 points and Taj Gibson provided an experienced and energetic lift along with Miles McBride, who was scoreless, but changed the tone defensively, Obi Toppin and Immanuel Quickley.
The more problematic dilemma for Thibodeau is what to make of the starters. The team was without Evan Fournier, who was a last-minute scratch after injuring his right ankle in pregame warmups. Rookie Quentin Grimes got the start and for a night fit right in with the rest of the underachieving unit — enduring an 0-for-5, scoreless 13 minutes.
Julius Randle followed up a 5-for-20 night in Minnesota with a dismal 2-for-11, five-point effort as he seemed for the second straight night to be lacking in energy, moving slowly around the court and often settling for three-pointers — missing all three of his attempts. Kemba Walker, playing in back-to-back nights, was just 1-for-5 with two points and two assists in 20 minutes. RJ Barrett was a team-worst minus-29.
The Pistons, or at least this diluted version of the team, went scoreless for the first 4:47 of the game, misfiring on their first eight shots. But trailing 7-0 at that point, they went on a 13-0 run with a lineup that was missing 12 players from the roster and featuring eight players signed on hardship exceptions. The Knicks managed to take a 48-41 lead into the half as the Pistons grew even more depleted with Frank Jackson, who started in the backcourt, carried off the floor by teammates after injuring his leg.
If you want to hear it one more time, this was Thibodeau’s words on the Pistons roster before the game.
"That’s the nature of the league," he said. "Every night you don’t know who you have, you don’t know who they have and then you have to be ready for everyone. Saddiq Bey can have a big night, Diallo can have a big night, Frank Jackson can have a big night. I always say this to our guys, you can’t get here without being a great player. So everyone in this league is a great player. So if you let your guard down at all you can be in trouble. ... You see it all the time. You’ve got to ready every night."
But the problem got much worse in the third quarter when Detroit came out with the Knicks still lifeless and took advantage, mounting a 16-2 run to start the third quarter. The Knicks called time a minute in, then again and finally again when the run reached 25-4 and the arena was suddenly rocking as if the fans were watching the Bad Boys of the Pistons championship years as this rag-tag group took a 65-52 lead.
The run was a hard to fathom effort as the Knicks misfired on 14-of-15 shots — including 0-for-6 from three — and turned the ball over seven times in that run. With a lineup of bench players on the floor the Knicks began to chip away, but Detroit still took a 71-64 lead with Hamidou Diallo and Saddiq Bey combining for 50 points through the three quarters.
The Knicks scored the last three points of the third quarter and finally, with that second unit remaining on the floor the Knicks scored the first 14 points of the fourth quarter and took control of the game. Thibodeau never went back to the starters, keeping this unit intact for the entire fourth quarter.
