Brunson’s ‘Hit Singles’ Mindset Sparks Knicks’ First Victory Over Pistons

NEW YORK — From his locker, Knicks guard Jalen Brunson glanced at the World Series broadcast and found a fitting metaphor for his team’s early-season approach.

“Just continue to hit singles,” Brunson said after New York secured its first win, a 111-97 decision over the Detroit Pistons at Madison Square Garden. “Just get on base and hit singles and focus on little things until we get our rhythm.”

The victory quieted the early unease surrounding the team, if only momentarily. While lacking style points, the win reversed several troubling trends. It snapped the Pistons’ recent regular-season dominance over the Knicks—Detroit had won all three meetings last season by an average of 30 points—and corrected New York’s second-half struggles, having been outscored by 26 points in the latter halves of their first three games.

Instead, the Knicks blitzed Detroit in the middle two quarters, outscoring the Pistons 63-25. During that stretch, they resembled the playoff-caliber version of themselves. In handing the conference-leading Pistons their first loss of the season, swingman Mikal Bridges broke out of an early slump, knocking down four 3-pointers after failing to hit one in the opening three games.

“We had more good moments in this game in totality than we did in the first three games, and that’s why we got the win,” Knicks head coach Mike Brown said. “Our awareness, our level of physicality on [Detroit’s shooters] was a lot better than the previous game.”

Brunson did not explode statistically, shooting 5-for-18 for 23 points. However, he remained aggressive, forcing the action and drawing Pistons defensive ace Ausar Thompson into a fourth-quarter foul-out as Detroit attempted a late rally.

Karl-Anthony Towns continued his strong individual play, answering a halftime challenge from Brown to better contain Pistons center Paul Reed. Thrust into extended duty due to All-Star Jalen Duren’s injury, Reed had fueled a 15-point Detroit lead with high-energy play on the glass.

“I told him the truth: ‘KAT, the guy is killing us on the glass and if he’s getting a rebound, he’s putting it back up. If he catches it on the perimeter, guard him,'” Brown said. “And he did those things. I thought that shift in mindset was big for us in the second half.”

Towns finished with 27 points and 20 rebounds, marking the 14th time in his career he has posted at least 25 points and 20 rebounds, and the fourth such instance in a Knicks uniform.

“I thought we did a good job of picking up our intensity and our physicality. I said before the game for us to win this, we have to be the best version of ourselves and not worry about everything else that’s going on,” Towns said.

Containing Pistons All-NBA guard Cade Cunningham was the top priority. Cunningham had scored 40 points in his last visit to the Garden and appeared headed for another massive outing before shooting just 4-of-14 after the first quarter.

With New York locking in on Cunningham and Detroit lacking a secondary scoring threat, the Knicks methodically chipped away to build a comfortable lead.

“Our guys realized, no, I can’t react to them. I got to dictate to them what’s going to happen,” Brown said. “And do it with a smart level of physicality.”

Brown harbored no illusions about a single game fixing the team’s issues, though he acknowledged the performance demonstrated the team’s potential.

“Is it fixed? No. It ain’t fixed. Nothing’s really fixed,” Brown said. “What tonight shows us is we’re more than capable if we put our minds to it, and that’s what we got to continue to try to build off of.”

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