Mikal Bridges offered a half-joking, half-serious solution to the Knicks’ second-half woes in their first-round playoff series against the Detroit Pistons.
“We gotta maybe do some layup lines or something coming out of halftime — get everybody out there moving,” Bridges said after Tuesday’s 106-103 Game 5 loss at Madison Square Garden.
At this point, Miles McBride said anything might help.
The Knicks have lost every third quarter in this series — five straight — and their minus-28 net rating in third quarters is the worst among all playoff teams. A 16-point first-half lead turned into an 11-point deficit entering the fourth quarter of Game 5, a theme that has repeated itself throughout the series.
The Pistons have held a lead in every fourth quarter of the series and have outscored the Knicks by a combined 33 points in third quarters alone. Despite New York’s clear advantage in playoff experience and star power, Detroit continues to punch first after halftime.
“Yeah, we’ve got to figure out how to come out of halftime better,” said Josh Hart, who exited Tuesday’s game with pain in his wrist, back, and — as he described it — “my whole body.”
“I think this is the third game in a row — I’m blanking on Games 1 and 2 — but we go into halftime with a lead, and then we go into the fourth quarter down,” Hart said. “So we’ve got to figure that out. We’ve got to come out of halftime more aggressive and punch first.”
The result? Three straight games decided by a single possession. The Knicks won Game 3 by two points and Game 4 by one before dropping Game 5 by three. In a series that could easily have been over, the Pistons are still alive — and heading back to Detroit with renewed momentum.
“We put ourselves in a deficit early. All series, we’ve been fighting back. I’m not sure right now. I’ve got to watch the tape,” said Karl-Anthony Towns. “I think for us, we’ve got to do a better job of executing at a higher level, stay disciplined with the ball, [moving] the basketball a little better.
“We haven’t put ourselves in position to get a commanding win. We’ve been very gritty this whole series and physical and it’s allowed us to find a way a lot of times to win. I think what was the point differential in Detroit, like three points? You only can do it so many times before it comes back to bite you. I think that tonight, we put ourselves in that position and we just didn’t find a way to get that match going.”
Bridges referenced his time with the Phoenix Suns as inspiration for the “layup lines” suggestion. That team overcame similar sluggish second-half starts en route to the 2021 NBA Finals.
“I had the same situation when I was in Phoenix,” he said. “We started the third quarter off [slow], and we had to change something — get everybody out there to start moving. Mentally, get everybody right.
“As much as we say ‘play hard,’ and say we’re gonna do what we say every time, we still don’t get it done. Maybe warming up or something can get us going a little bit.”
Team captain Jalen Brunson wasn’t quick to co-sign the idea, but acknowledged the problem.
“As a team we recognized they we’re starting games strong, and we responded,” Brunson said. “But now we’ve got to do the same thing coming out of halftime. It’s a really important stretch, those first couple minutes. Tonight they took advantage of that.
“[Layup lines] could be [an answer],” he added. “But more than that, we’ve got to come together and make sure we’re mentally locked in.”
INJURY WATCH & BRUNSON’S STRUGGLES
Hart confirmed his fall late in the fourth quarter left him battered: “Wrist, back — yeah,” he said. When asked which wrist, he smiled: “My whole body’s bothering me.”
Brunson, meanwhile, scored 30 or more in each of the first four games of the series but finished with just 16 points on 4-of-16 shooting in Game 5, along with seven assists and four turnovers.
“Offensively, I didn’t make good decisions personally,” he said. “The ball wasn’t going in the hoop for me. I just have to control what I can control and go from there.”
Second-year Pistons wing Ausar Thompson has been the primary defender on Brunson throughout the series.
“He’s a great defender,” Brunson said. “The way he’s been able to pick up [full court] and do all the little things — like I said, he’s a great defender. Me personally, and as a team, we’ve got to figure out how to combat that.”
