Madison Square Garden already played a central role in the Detroit Pistons’ resurgent season.
An early-season win over the Knicks at the Garden is one of two games Pistons head coach J.B. Bickerstaff credits for instilling confidence that his team’s turnaround was legitimate.
“We were able to come out with a win there,” Bickerstaff said Thursday on SiriusXM NBA Radio. “It just felt like our guys started to believe that they could compete with and beat some of the better teams in this league.”
Bickerstaff did not specify which game at the Garden he was referring to, as the Pistons won both of their games there en route to a 3-1 record against the Knicks in the regular season.
But the first of those victories came on Dec. 7, when Cade Cunningham erupted for a triple-double as Detroit improved to 10-15. Bickerstaff’s other “belief-changing” win came about a week earlier when the Pistons blew out the Indiana Pacers during the in-season tournament.
On Saturday night, the sixth-seeded Pistons (44-38) are set to return to the Garden for Game 1 of their first-round playoff series against the third-seeded Knicks (51-31).
It’s a matchup nobody would have predicted coming into the season, considering the Pistons were fresh off of an NBA-worst 14-68 record in 2023-24 and had set a dubious single-season record with 28 consecutive losses.
Bickerstaff, in his first year with Detroit, could sense his players’ anxiety at the ends of close games at the beginning of this season.
But beating teams like the Knicks proved to be an essential step.
“Once that kind of clicked, you can just feel the difference,” Bickerstaff told hosts Frank Isola and Brian Scalabrine. “That’s the most difficult part of the NBA: learning how to win and believing you can. Our guys found it this year.”
The Pistons, with a young core of former lottery picks, went 23-12 over their final 35 games. Their strong finish, coupled with their regular-season success against the Knicks, adds intrigue to what many expect to be among the more competitive first-round series.
But Detroit lacks postseason experience. Cunningham, Jalen Duren, Ron Holland II, Ausar Thompson and Isaiah Stewart are among the key Pistons who have never appeared in a playoff game.
Still, Bickerstaff expects Cunningham, the first overall pick in 2021, to be among the series’ most impactful players.
“He seems, from the time that I’ve been around him, built for the moment,” Bickerstaff said of the 6-6 point guard, who averaged 30.8 points and 8.3 assists against the Knicks this season.
“That’s not to say there’s not possibly some ups and downs and those types of things, but he plays pretty consistent emotionally. … He’s got the demeanor, he’s got the poise and he’s got the skill set. He just has to get that experience.”
Bickerstaff also believes controlling emotion is key for his players. The Pistons present a physicality that’s begun to draw light comparisons to the “Bad Boy” teams of the 1980s and ’90s.
Stewart, a bruising backup center, tied for second in the NBA with four flagrant fouls and ranked third with 14 technicals. Dennis Schroder —with his persistent defense — continues to be a thorn in the sides of opposing point guards.
“It’s important for us to be physical but not emotional,” Bickerstaff said. “We’re going to be physical. There’s going to be some dust-ups. There’s going to be some interactions. That’s just the way it is when we show up in the building, but we can’t allow the emotion to get the best of us.”
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