Maybe it’s load management. Maybe the Knicks are a little more nicked up than they’re letting on.
Or maybe — just maybe — there’s some gamesmanship at play.
For one reason or another, the Knicks ruled out starters OG Anunoby (right thumb sprain) and Josh Hart (right knee patellofemoral syndrome), plus backup center Mitchell Robinson (left ankle, surgery recovery) ahead of Thursday’s matchup against the Detroit Pistons.
The decision came ahead of a back-to-back, with the Knicks hosting the Eastern Conference’s No. 1-seeded Cleveland Cavaliers on Friday. Teams often sit starters for rest purposes in one leg of those grueling two-game swings.
But there’s also strategy involved — and this one might have been about more than rest.
The Knicks entered Thursday sitting in the East’s No. 3 seed, while the Pistons were all but locked into sixth. That makes a first-round playoff matchup between these two teams increasingly likely — and makes Thursday night a preview of what’s to come.
Which also makes it a potential trap: the kind of game where you tip your hand, show your sets, or lean too far into your personnel preferences against a team you may see in a seven-game series just days later.
So it made perfect sense — for both preservation and misdirection — to sit Anunoby, Hart and Robinson in Detroit. And in Robinson’s case, it was a bonus.
The Pistons haven’t faced the Knicks with their defensive anchor healthy all season. New York entered the season series finale down 1-2 against Detroit — a surprising number until you realize Robinson didn’t make his return from offseason ankle surgery until Feb. 28. Since that date, the Knicks have ranked top-10 league-wide in defensive efficiency.
Head coach Tom Thibodeau said the implications of a playoff preview don’t change his approach to a game.
“It doesn’t change your approach or anything. You go through the finish line into the next game prepared like you would do for every game,” Thibodeau said pregame at Little Caesars Arena on Thursday. “Don’t change anything and understand what goes into winning. Anytime someone’s out, it’s an opportunity for someone else to step in. Understand what your job is, go in there and do your job.
“All you’re doing is thinking about everything you have to do to win the game. So [the playoffs] doesn’t change your approach. If you get wrapped up in other stuff, you’re skipping over steps — and that’s not what you should do.”
The Pistons, meanwhile, look more playoff-ready than ever.
Their young core, headlined by All-Star guard Cade Cunningham, has benefited from a veteran infusion, including the additions of Tobias Harris, Malik Beasley, Tim Hardaway Jr. and Paul Reed.
“You have [the vets] that get the majority of the minutes,” Pistons head coach J.B. Bickerstaff said pregame. “Those are guys who are extremely dependable. You trust that they’re going to do the right thing… Whether it’s offensively or defensively, they just bring [leadership] to the game. That makes everybody else play better as well. They’ve all won games for us, and they’ve been dependable — which is the most important thing you can be for these young guys.”
Thibodeau, who faced Bickerstaff’s teams during his time in Cleveland, had nothing but praise for the Pistons’ progress.
“I think J.B. has done a terrific job; I thought he did a terrific job in Cleveland,” said Thibodeau. “I think they have a lot of young players, and they’ve gotten better, and that usually happens with experience. And I think they added really good veterans that have complimented their young players really well. So, they’ve been consistent from the start of the season throughout, and they’re strong on both sides of the ball.”
So call it rest. Call it precaution. Call it whatever you want.
But if Knicks-Pistons is truly on deck for Round 1, you can also call Thursday’s absences exactly what they were: a smart play in a long game the Knicks are still scripting.
