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Basketball Aggregated: Yahoo Sports NBA
6 min read • 28 Oct 2026

Knicks pick up first win of the season, down undefeated Pistons, 111-97

By: Top Tipper
Aggregated news from Yahoo Sports NBA Read Original Source ↗

After opening the season 0-3, the Knicks finally resembled their championship selves Tuesday night, downing the Detroit Pistons, who had been the last remaining undefeated team in the Eastern Conference, 111-97.

Here are the takeaways...

-- New York faced a shorthanded Pistons team that found itself without mammoth center Jalen Duren and newly-acquired veteran guard Isaiah Joe, leaving Cade Cunningham and swingman Ausar Thompson — who returned to the court after missing Sunday's game due to a sprained ankle —to shoulder most of the offensive weight against a nearly completely healthy Knicks squad eyeing their first win of the season. 

New York was missing just bench point guard Jose Alvarado, whose sprained ankle sidelined him for a second-straight contest. 

-- The Knicks went up early thanks to a pair of two-pointers from Karl-Anthony Towns and Og Anunoby in the first 90 seconds of the game, but Detroit caught up quickly on two free throws and a bucket, all courtesy of Paul Reed. After a Pistons timeout with 7:05 to go in the frame, Detroit went on an unanswered 7-0 run to take a 15-11 lead, driven by five points and an assist from Cunningham. A Landry Shamet three narrowed the gap, but the Pistons stayed two or more possessions ahead through the remainder of the quarter as New York's transition defense allowed another lengthy run from Detroit down the stretch (10-2).

Through the first 12 minutes of play, Shamet (8 minutes) was minus-16, Towns (10 minutes) was minus-14, and Brunson (11 minutes) was minus-10. 

-- The Knicks continued to fall behind, dropping to a 12-point deficit (42-30) midway through the second. After Brunson launched a 25-foot three-point jumper and missed, Andre Drummond leapt up and caught the rebound as it bounced off the rim, slamming the ball into the net to put the Knicks back within two possessions. Seemingly revitalized by Drummond's dunk, the Knicks' defense kicked back into gear, holding Detroit to just one point for over four-and-a-half minutes of play. 

A Mikal Bridges basket from beyond the arc — his third of both the game and the season — gave the Knicks a narrow one-point lead, but Cunningham knotted the score at 46 with a shot from the charity stripe. The rivals then traded buckets as the final two minutes wound down, but three made free throws by Brunson in the final 31 seconds gave the Knicks a narrow 51-50 edge as they headed into halftime. They performed better on both ends of the court in the second frame, outscoring the Pistons 26-12.

-- Bridges, who had scored 10 total points through the first three games of the season, tallied nine in the first half alone Tuesday night. As a team, the Knicks shot 93 percent from the free-throw line in the same span, compared to Detroit's 73 percent. 

-- New York's offense finally found a real groove after the break. Brunson and Josh Hart combined for a 7-0 Knicks run to open the third, marking the largest lead New York held up to that point in the game. Hart assisted a Towns layup early before Brunson nailed both two-pointers, one of which came on a defensive rebound from Hart. Anunoby then stole the ball twice, first finding Hart — who passed to Bridges for his fourth three of the night — then Brunson, whose two-pointer increased the New York lead to 12 (62-50). Detroit got a couple points back, but a flagrant foul from Reed on Towns allowed the Knicks a free chance to widen the gap back to 12.

The quarter continued as such: Detroit regains a few, New York goes back up. By the end, the Knicks were up 88-63, punctuated by a beyond-the-arc jumper at the buzzer from Hart. 

-- Detroit's 12-point second quarter and 13-point third were the team's lowest marks so far this campaign and were lower than any quarter in any game they played last year.

-- New York's dominance continued in the final quarter even as the Pistons chipped away at the deficit. Three minutes in, Detroit's Thompson attempted to pull the ball up the court but lost control. Knicks bench point guard Tyler Kolek seized the opportunity, stealing the ball and passing it behind his back to an undefended Towns, who dunked it in. Towns followed the trick play up with back-to-back bad pass turnovers, leading to a Knicks timeout, after which Drummond and Thompson traded points for their respective teams. 

With 1:13 left to play and the Knicks ahead 109-97, New York's starters left the court. Kolek landed two free throws, bringing the final score to 111-97.

-- The Knicks had the Pistons beat in nearly every category, shooting 33 percent from three and 82 percent from the free-throw line, while the Pistons shot 24 percent and 58 percent, respectively. New York also had 49 rebounds to Detroit's 45, 28 assists to Detroit's 23, and 10 steals to Detroit's 8. Both teams went 43 percent from the field.

Notably, though, the Knicks had a whopping 18 turnovers. Detroit recorded 14.

-- Against his first-ever team, Drummond went 5-for-7 from the field, posting 10 points and 8 rebounds in 14 minutes of play. 

Game MVP: Karl-Anthony Towns

The 30-year-old notched his fourth-straight double-double, posting a game-leading 27 points and 20 rebounds across 33 minutes. No one else on either team had more than 23 points (Brunson) or nine rebounds.

HighlightsWhat's next

The Knicks will begin their first two-game road trip of the season in Chicago Wednesday night. Tip-off against the Bulls is scheduled for 8 p.m.

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