DETROIT — Over the course of five games — and even over the course of a hectic Game 6, in which they made a pair of double-digit comebacks to give themselves a chance — the Detroit Pistons repeatedly made believers out of their fans inside of sold-out Little Caesars Arena.
With 20 seconds to go Thursday night, and the score tied at 113, the crowd of 20,062 had ample reason to think Detroit could pull it off, even as New York Knicks All-NBA guard and Clutch Player of the Year Jalen Brunson possessed the ball on the other side.
The Knicks were on the ropes, but Brunson stepped up and delivered a punch for the ages, shedding clingy 6-foot-6 Ausar Thompson with a nasty step-back before rising and drilling a 25-footer with 5.1 seconds left to give New York a 116-113 win and a 4-2 Eastern Conference first-round series win.
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For the Knicks, who’ve largely grown to expect this from Brunson — he had an NBA-best 52 baskets in the clutch this season — it was more of the same.
“Doesn’t matter if he’s struggling. Doesn’t matter if he’s hooping. You can never tell,” said Mikal Bridges, who co-starred with Brunson in Game 6 with 25 points and earlier won two national titles with him at Villanova. “All I thought is: If he can get some separation, once he got separation, I knew it was curtains.”
Said Knicks coach Tom Thibodeau: “It’s how he deals with things when he misses a shot. He comes back and shoots the next one. He may miss it, but he’ll shoot the next one. It’s just having that belief and confidence. … He gets a lot of attention and gets trapped a lot. But he’s obviously very clever and shifty, and can get to the spots he wants to.”
It’s hard to fully grasp everything that hung in the balance with Brunson’s shot.
Brunson and the Knicks spoke at length Thursday morning about the importance of playing a full 48 minutes, and to not take their foot off the pedal after allowing devastating runs to the Pistons earlier in the series. (After solid first and third quarters Thursday, New York saw Detroit hold a 16-point edge in the second quarter and go on a 20-2 run in the fourth.)
The threat of leaving things to chance with a Game 7 at Madison Square Garden was imminent, as the young Pistons had shown no fear throughout the series.
If New York hadn’t come away with the series win, particularly as the more experienced club and as a favorite, it’s not far-fetched to think there would have been a drumbeat for changes within the organization; be it to the top-heavy roster or the coaching staff, if not both.
Asked if he felt the ultimate weight of the shot as he let it go, Brunson said he did.
“If it doesn’t go in, hopefully we go to overtime,” he said, adding that he didn’t like how early he launched it — with about six seconds left — because the Pistons could have won in regulation had he missed it.
But he didn’t miss. The make gave him 40 points and marked the fifth game of the series in which Brunson finished with 30 points or more.
In rewatching the play, Brunson said he surprised himself with how open he was, particularly with how skilled a defender he found Thompson to be throughout the series. Thompson had him beat going to his left, so Brunson instinctively stopped quickly to create space.
Thompson, a 22-year-old who could very well go on to make several All-Defensive teams in his career, said he didn’t plan to watch the play again anytime soon.
“Nah, probably not going to watch it for a little bit,” Thompson said, adding that he’s “gotta hit the weight room” to do a better job of absorbing Brunson’s contact on such a sequence.
As euphoric as the winning shot was, Brunson said he understood the reality of the next challenge he and the Knicks are set to face in the conference semifinals against the Boston Celtics. The Pistons, a 14-win club a season ago that more than tripled its win total, were relative newcomers.
The Celtics — who swept the Knicks in fairly noncompetitive fashion during the regular season — are not. It’s probably going to take far more consistency than what New York showed in this series to beat Boston.
“We’re playing the defending champs next time, so it’s going to be a lot different,” Brunson said. “Playing this team we just played — I’m not discrediting them at all — but they didn’t have the same experience. The Celtics have experience.”
What the Knicks have, above all else, is Brunson. They figure to go into the next round a big underdog. But Brunson’s late-game efforts give them a chance every time out if they can simply keep things close.
“He’s at his best when his best is needed,” Thibodeau said. “He’s done it all year. That’s what makes him special.”
ESPN’s Eric Woodyard contributed to this report.
