DETROIT — The Knicks are returning to the site of the biggest shot of Jalen Brunson’s Knicks career, the place he silenced those profane chants from Detroit fans by sending Ausar Thompson stumbling out of the frame with a crossover.
Brunson, Karl-Anthony Towns and the Knicks conquered Little Caesars Arena in the first round just eight months ago.
Now, they’re coming back Monday night as underdogs and facing, arguably, the biggest threat to their goal of reaching the NBA Finals.
The Pistons (26-9) are three games clear of the Knicks (23-12) for first in the conference, boasting Cade Cunningham, who — along with Boston’s Jaylen Brown — can stake legitimate claim against Brunson for the East’s best player this season.
It’s a showdown with extra oomph, the first Pistons-Knicks head-to-head of the season: No. 1 in the conference vs. No. 2.
But all coach Mike Brown can think about is getting his team in a better place.
Because right now? His Knicks are sliding.
“For us, it really doesn’t matter [that we’re playing the Pistons]. It’s whoever is in front of us. We need to go figure out how to play the right way on both ends of the floor and get a win. It’s as simple as that,” Brown said. “Our mindset is everybody just trying to bring a little bit more.
“A little bit more defensively. A little bit more offensively, in order to get over the hump. There’s not anything tricky or magical that we’re going to come up with in a matter of two days. We just know we can bring a little bit more to the table.”
Brown’s point is well taken. In the grand scheme of things, a matchup in January — no matter the opponent — is meaningless.
Despite Adam Silver’s attempts to dress up the regular season, it remains mostly a sludge with too many DNPs, injuries and very few results that move the big picture.
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Take Monday night, for instance: The Pistons are missing two starters, Jalen Duren (ankle) and Tobias Harris (hip). They’ll be on the second game of a back-to-back after flying from Cleveland following Sunday’s 114-110 win over the Cavaliers. Cunningham logged a hard 37 minutes.
There’s probably revenge on the mind of the Pistons — a desire to demonstrate they truly belong in the contender picture — but they’re not at full strength.
So what does it prove if they lose?
The Knicks, meanwhile, are without Josh Hart, who is nursing a sprained ankle. They’re arriving in Motown at a low point, riding their first three-game losing streak of the season.
The defense is a hot mess, filled with lackadaisical attempts to fight through screens and a head-scratching strategy of forcing opponents into the middle rather than baseline.
They were rated 16th in defense before Sunday, and a pitiful 26th in their last 10 games. The Pistons were ranked second in defense before Sunday. That’s been the difference between the two teams.
What’s happening on and off the Garden court
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“Right now we’re not as physical as we should be at the point of attack,” Brown said. “We’re not navigating the ball screen like we should be at the point of attack a lot of the times. And then when we do, we’re picking up a foul here, a foul there. And sending guys to the free throw line. So our physicality, as well as our shifts, have to be better so we can help protect that paint a little bit more.”
It’s an issue that could be exacerbated against Cunningham, who is as good as anybody in breaking down a defense and capitalizing on switches.
So the Knicks have a dual challenge Monday, and they’re not mutually exclusive:
Get off the schneid and beat the team with the best record in the East.
“It’s the first time we’ve lost three in a row [since Games 3-5 of the season]. So we’re in an area we’re not used to,” Brown said. “We’ve hit a little bit of adversity. I’ve never been on a team that has not gone through adversity throughout the course of the year, whether we won it at the end of the season or we were in the Finals. Or we had a halfway decent season. Every team is going to hit it. And now for us, it’s about how do we respond? How do we come out of it? So it’s a great opportunity for us to see what we’re made of.”
