DETROIT — Five games into their first-round playoff series, the Knicks still haven’t played to their full potential.
“Not at all. Not even close,” Josh Hart said after morning shootaround at Little Caesars Arena on Thursday. “I think we’ve had spurts where we’ve played very well, and we’ve had quarters where we’ve played terrible — i.e. that third quarter [in Game 5]. So we’ve gotta make sure we find ways to keep good flow and good rhythm all the way throughout the game.”
New York’s plan for unlocking that consistency? Play with pace. Force the Pistons to think on the fly. Speed things up and make them uncomfortable.
“That’s playing faster,” Hart continued. “That’s making them make decisions. And when you make teams make decisions, you put them in positions to make mistakes — and when you put them in that position, then you can counter and make them pay for those mistakes.
“So that’s something that we’ve gotta do. We’ve gotta play with more pace, make sure we get everybody involved — with JB [Jalen Brunson], KAT [Karl-Anthony Towns], also Mikal [Bridges] and OG [Anunoby] — and go out there and hoop. That’s the biggest thing: play with pace the whole game and put them in positions to make mistakes.”
Brunson shouldered the blame for New York’s offensive stumbles in Game 5, where he finished with 16 points on 4-of-16 shooting.
“I struggled offensively,” he said Thursday. “I feel like I’m bringing up the ball, I have the ball most of the time, so it starts with me. So in order to be better offensively as a team, I need to be better making decisions and making sure I’m putting my teammates in the best position to be successful. So it starts with me.”
Brunson attributed the issues to both Detroit’s defensive game-planning and the Knicks’ failure to capitalize on clean looks.
“I think a mixture of both. It’s playoff basketball. We’ve been playing the same team — this is the sixth time,” he said. “I’m pretty sure they know us. We know them. We’re in a position now where we just need to go out there and earn it. It’s not gonna be given to us. They’re not gonna hand anything over.
“We’ve gotta go out there and play the best we can regardless of what’s happening. It’s never gonna be easy. So we’ve gotta go out there and get it.”
Slow starts have also become a recurring issue. The Knicks can’t afford another sluggish first quarter — especially not on the road with a chance to close the series.
“[We’ve] got to start the game well — on both sides of the ball,” Brunson said. “Can’t play catch-up. Just making sure we have our foot on the gas the entire game.
“I feel like [there are] spurts where we let our foot off the gas a little bit. But we’re just striving to play for 48 minutes.”
Getting Towns involved early would also help. Towns is averaging 23.6 points in the Knicks’ three victories and just 13.5 points in their two losses. The more aggressive New York is in seeking out mismatches for its All-Star big, the better their offense tends to flow.
“That’s the NBA. A lot of people can’t guard people at times,” Brunson said when asked if the Knicks need to hunt Towns more deliberately. “For the most part we’ve gotta make sure as a team we’re good and ready to go. And if we see something we like, we have to make sure we attack it. So just making sure we’re on the same page.”
