#2 - Pistons@Knicks - 7:30pm ET

[tmorgan]

We've been pressuring all 94 feet, but the full court press is where Ausar is picking up these stupid fouls.

We'd be better off with *light* pressure or just getting back on D. Deny him the ball where you can, pick & choose spots to trap, but I'm not sure it's worth continuing to pick him up 80 ft from the basket. Brunson is too quick/crafty.

Or… the constant pressure is wearing Brunson out, and the rest of our team is doing a solid job of denying easy passing lanes to the interior. The Knicks vaunted offense does not look good. It’s working.

[zeebneeb]

We've been pressuring all 94 feet, but the full court press is where Ausar is picking up these stupid fouls.

We'd be better off with *light* pressure or just getting back on D. Deny him the ball where you can, pick & choose spots to trap, but I'm not sure it's worth continuing to pick him up 80 ft from the basket. Brunson is too quick/crafty.

Or… the constant pressure is wearing Brunson out, and the rest of our team is doing a solid job of denying easy passing lanes to the interior. The Knicks vaunted offense does not look good. It’s working.

Agreed. Pistons have super young legs. I don't care if Ausar fouls out in every game. He has been supremely effective in his minutes.

He is now in Runtsons head, shown by the fact that Runtson held up 6 fingers when Ausar fouled out.

Pressure the Knicks all game long. Tire them out.

[Cowology]

Hope so.

[Invictus88]

We've been pressuring all 94 feet, but the full court press is where Ausar is picking up these stupid fouls.

We'd be better off with *light* pressure or just getting back on D. Deny him the ball where you can, pick & choose spots to trap, but I'm not sure it's worth continuing to pick him up 80 ft from the basket. Brunson is too quick/crafty.

Or… the constant pressure is wearing Brunson out, and the rest of our team is doing a solid job of denying easy passing lanes to the interior. The Knicks vaunted offense does not look good. It’s working.

Agreed. Pistons have super young legs. I don't care if Ausar fouls out in every game. He has been supremely effective in his minutes.

He is now in Runtsons head, shown by the fact that Runtson held up 6 fingers when Ausar fouled out.

Pressure the Knicks all game long. Tire them out.

I think Ausar will be fine. I have to hope the general consensus with the replays floating around is that Ausar got jobbed on a lot of the calls while covering Brunson. Some of those videos were just ridiculous. Hopefully that translates to a fairer whistle for him in game 3... which is really bad for the Knicks.

[MotownMadness]

Love how Cade got a good whistle from the refs last night. Would be amazing for him if that would continue.

[joedumars1]

On to Game 3, which will be the toughest. I'm sure the stat is kept somewhere, but when a decidedly favored team in a best of 7 series loses Game 2 at home, they seemingly always bounce back & win Game 3 on the road. While we get an extra day to revel in winning Game 2, the Knicks get an extra day to be pissed and make adjustments. JB needs to get them into a we're down 0-2 mindset and really prepare for what's coming Thursday night. The effort was fantastic last night. Just don't let up.

I’m thinking we lose game 3, but I hope I’m wrong. Thought we’d win this one, got whatever that’s worth, lol.

The refs unfortunately are what might decide it, I hate saying that, but I mean how tf where them fouls? Excited for the game in Detroit

[VicVinegar]

It must be said that Paul Reed was a perfectly adequate Stewart replacement yesterday.

I like Stewart but I also think his importance was overstated by some after the last game.

B-Ball Paul is the best. What a bang for your buck guy. He didn't see much action all year, but when he did, he never looked out of place. He's very good for a #3 Center and he makes league minimum. Would absolutely love to have him back next year as an insurance plan again. Almost hard to believe this team actually has depth after starting G league players consistently the past 3 years.

[VicVinegar]

Read on Twitter

Brunson has drawn 23 fouls in 2 games and Thibs is complaining? LOL. The season leader (Giannis) averaged 7.6 fouls drawn a game. Brunson averaged 6.3. Now he's getting 11.5 a game and the Knicks think he should be getting more? Thibs is more in denial about the refs than he is about balding.

[bstein14]

Read on Twitter

Brunson has drawn 23 fouls in 2 games and Thibs is complaining? LOL. The season leader (Giannis) averaged 7.6 fouls drawn a game. Brunson averaged 6.3. Now he's getting 11.5 a game and the Knicks think he should be getting more? Thibs is more in denial about the refs than he is about balding.

He's drove the ball to the basket 46 times.... I know he has gotten fouled a few times on the perimeter as well but getting a foul for 50% of your drives is pretty insane.

Cade has 41 drives and 14 fouls drawn and he's gotten a good whistle so 23 on 46 is insane.

[Uncle Mxy]

I hope we see second-half KAT for the rest of the series. Hopefully we continue to have Shaq's support.

https://awfulannouncing.com/tnt-sports/ernie-johnson-calls-out-shaquille-oneal-praise-karl-anthony-towns.html

After seeing a dunk from Towns in the first quarter of the game, O’Neal expressed his excitement for how Towns played throughout the entire game.

“He played like a real big man tonight. I’m happy for KAT,” said O’Neal.

[Laimbeer]

NYK -225
DET - +188

About 3 to 1 when series started, down to about 2 to 1

[MotownMadness]

I heard it a few times during the broadcast that Cade and Duren are the #1 alley oop combo in the league.

[NYPiston]

It must be said that Paul Reed was a perfectly adequate Stewart replacement yesterday.

I like Stewart but I also think his importance was overstated by some after the last game.

The Pistons strength is their depth, they honestly have one of the deepest rosters in the league. They have two guys in Sasser and Reed that would be solid bench guys on a lot of rosters and can't get minutes here and this is all with Ivey out but Reed doesn't have the same defensive ability and physicality that Stew has. With that said, Reed is a good luxury to have with Stew out a real pro

[Mr Peanut]

Knicks fans in the GB saying Cade gets a favorable whistle and not acknowledging Brunson's actions is a special form of cognitive dissonance.

[MotownMadness]

Knicks fans in the GB saying Cade gets a favorable whistle and not acknowledging Brunson's actions is a special form of cognitive dissonance.

Cades not out there flopping around like Brunson

[zeebneeb]

I heard it a few times during the broadcast that Cade and Duren are the #1 alley oop combo in the league.

This is absolutely the case, and the Pistons as a whole, were just bananas in terms of dunks this season;

Pistons had 558 dunks.

#2 Lakers had 491

It really was lob city this season.

Most dunks in a season by a team since 2018.

[Kalamazoo317]

We've been pressuring all 94 feet, but the full court press is where Ausar is picking up these stupid fouls.

We'd be better off with *light* pressure or just getting back on D. Deny him the ball where you can, pick & choose spots to trap, but I'm not sure it's worth continuing to pick him up 80 ft from the basket. Brunson is too quick/crafty.

Or… the constant pressure is wearing Brunson out, and the rest of our team is doing a solid job of denying easy passing lanes to the interior. The Knicks vaunted offense does not look good. It’s working.

Agreed. Pistons have super young legs. I don't care if Ausar fouls out in every game. He has been supremely effective in his minutes.

He is now in Runtsons head, shown by the fact that Runtson held up 6 fingers when Ausar fouled out.

Pressure the Knicks all game long. Tire them out.

I was honestly happy when Ausar fouled out, just because I really didn't like how he was looking on offense in the clutch and figured we could hold up on defense with how much he'd worn Brunson out already. Dennis was the perfect defense/offense closer for us.

[kierkegaard]

What does this even mean? Anyone else guarding Brunson would’ve fouled out by halftime.

Refs got in their heads with the “REFS YOU SUCK” chants and took it out on Ausar. Played some of the best full court defense you can play outside of Lou Dort, but not crafty enough for you???

I don't know. On the play where he convinced J.B. to (unsuccessfully) challenge, Ausar was clearly holding Brunson as Brunson tried to run past him. Neither the play itself nor pleading for the challenge seemed very smart to me.

But that's not even what I'm talking about. What I'm talking about more generally is that if Brunson is baiting and the refs are cooperating, you change things up so as to not take the bait. It's pretty simple and I didn't see Ausar do that Tuesday. I don't see how this is even a question.

[the_l_train]

What does this even mean? Anyone else guarding Brunson would’ve fouled out by halftime.

Refs got in their heads with the “REFS YOU SUCK” chants and took it out on Ausar. Played some of the best full court defense you can play outside of Lou Dort, but not crafty enough for you???

I don't know. On the play where he convinced J.B. to (unsuccessfully) challenge, Ausar was clearly holding Brunson as Brunson tried to run past him. Neither the play itself nor pleading for the challenge seemed very smart to me.

But that's not even what I'm talking about. What I'm talking about more generally is that if Brunson is baiting and the refs are cooperating, you change things up so as to not take the bait. It's pretty simple and I didn't see Ausar do that Tuesday. I don't see how this is even a question.

You watched that challenge play and thought it was a legit foul? The main story line from this game is Brunson's egregious flopping, so much so that he is more focused on drawing fouls than getting his own team involved.

Go back and watch those 6 "fouls" and tell me that they were all warranted. You'll be lucky to find 4 real ones. Questioning Ausars defense is just moronic, and this isn't homer-ism. He is plenty crafty.

[flow]

What does this even mean? Anyone else guarding Brunson would’ve fouled out by halftime.

Refs got in their heads with the “REFS YOU SUCK” chants and took it out on Ausar. Played some of the best full court defense you can play outside of Lou Dort, but not crafty enough for you???

I don't know. On the play where he convinced J.B. to (unsuccessfully) challenge, Ausar was clearly holding Brunson as Brunson tried to run past him. Neither the play itself nor pleading for the challenge seemed very smart to me.

Yeah, I have to agree. I understand why Ausar was upset, but his arm positioning made it too close to blow your challenge there. And to pour salt in the wound, the next foul called against Ausar would absolutely have been overturned if challenged. Ausar clearly beat Brunson to the spot and had good position.

Oh well. He's back to 0 fouls now.