NEW YORK — The last time the Detroit Pistons won a playoff game, the Seattle SuperSonics were a month from selecting Russell Westbrook with the No. 4 overall pick of the NBA draft. Apple was still months from releasing the iPhone 3G — the successor to the original model.
In fact, since May 26, 2008, the date of Detroit’s last postseason victory, the Boston Celtics have won an NBA-most 126 playoff games.
On Monday night, facing the possibility of a second consecutive blown fourth-quarter lead, the Pistons finally snapped a 15-game postseason losing streak to even their first-round series against the New York Knicks. They won 100-94. And in the process, Detroit also surpassed another benchmark, another indicator that its culture is being reset.
“We did what we were supposed to do,” Pistons coach J.B. Bickerstaff told reporters after the game. “To win a game, on the road, to get home court is what we came here for. We approached it with a business-like mentality and learned from the fourth quarter the other night, but we just did what we were supposed to do.”
This season, Detroit posted a 30-win improvement over last year, the sixth-best turnaround in NBA history. The team has a burgeoning supernova in Cade Cunningham, a 23-year-old, first-time All-Star who dropped 33 points and 12 rebounds — 11 of them defensive — Monday at Madison Square Garden. The Pistons play team defense and hounded the Knicks along the perimeter, forcing them to miss their first eight 3-point tries.
And through the first two games of this series — even with Saturday night’s blown lead — the young Pistons showed they’re already ahead of their rebuild.
“We wanted to send a message,” forward Tobias Harris said after the game. “We were disappointed after Game 1 with what happened there, so we wanted to come out tonight and figure out ways that we could be better. … Our message was for us, internally, to show that we could close. Tonight was a great night for that. That type of feeling and that type of energy — we have a team that’s new and new to this feeling. We needed to understand how to close out a game in the playoffs.”
Just like they did Saturday night, the Pistons entered the fourth quarter with an eight-point lead. And also like Saturday, New York responded with a fury, tying the score at 94 with 1:15 left.
But point guard Dennis Schröder scored 20 points off the bench, none bigger than his go-ahead 3-pointer that was the eventual game winner.
The question now is whether Monday will be merely a culture-shifting victory, or one the Pistons can ride to a series upset.
Some of the coaching adjustments Bickerstaff and his assistants made before Game 2 suggest that Detroit could continue to find ways to attack New York’s defense. After the Knicks dictated the physicality with which they defended Cunningham in Game 1, the Pistons asked Cunningham in Game 2 to push the pace and get easier opportunities in transition. When asked about the shift, Bickerstaff did not divulge much, saying only that the Pistons “saw something” from game film that they thought they could exploit.
“He’s elite,” Bickerstaff said. “He is a superstar, and he played the game tonight as a superstar. He did what he needed to do to help his team win. He understood how aggressive he needed to be on the offensive end of the floor. So he was going to go out and be aggressive.
“He also understood how important finishing possessions was. He had 11 defensive rebounds; that’s knowing and understanding how to manipulate the game and make winning plays, whatever your team needs in the moment.”
The Pistons also moved center Jalen Duren to guard the shorter Josh Hart, reducing his impact on the offensive glass, an area where Hart can spark New York with high-energy plays. That left Harris to guard Knicks center Karl-Anthony Towns, a player with range who can stretch the floor; Towns took just three shots in the second half, did not score after intermission and finished with 10 points.
The Knicks, however, are also well-coached. They’re loaded with offensive firepower and will surely make their own adjustments ahead of Game 3 Thursday night in Detroit. The next test for the Pistons will be to anticipate any tweaks and devise their own — to avoid stagnation and retain homecourt advantage.
“It’s a great feeling, man,” Cunningham said. “It feels good to represent the city like we did tonight. It’s something that the city has been waiting on a long time, so we feel good about it and we’re ready to go back to the crib and perform in front of them.”