This felt like last spring.
Defense. Grit. Tenacity — adjectives that haven’t been used much about these Knicks.
In their playoff opener Saturday, the Knicks embodied the injury-depleted team of a year ago.
They took a right hand and got back up, flooring the Pistons with a scintillating fourth quarter after it looked like they may fall behind early in this opening-round playoff series.
Instead, a rousing 21-0 run paved the way to an encouraging 123-112 Game 1 victory at a rocking Garden.
Jalen Brunson shook off a shaky start to score 34 points, 12 in the final stanza, along with eight assists.
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Karl-Anthony Towns chipped in 23 points, 11 rebounds, five assists, four steals and two blocks in his playoff debut as a Knick, and OG Anunoby also had 23 points and seven rebounds.
Defense turned the game for the Knicks, who held the Pistons to 21 points in the fourth quarter and forced 21 turnovers altogether.
Long Island’s Tobias Harris scored 25 points for the Pistons, though only three came in the second half. Cade Cunningham added 21 points and 12 assists.
The fourth quarter began with a five-second violation by Detroit and a shot clock violation — a preview of what was to come. Pistons turnovers and missed shots turned into Knicks runouts.
Cameron Payne and Josh Hart came alive, the two combining to score 19 of the Knicks’ 39 fourth-quarter points.
Considering the Pistons shot 50 percent from the 3-point line (9-of-18), Brunson started the game 2-of-13 from the field and Harris was unconscious in the first half en route to 22 points, the Knicks were in a good spot at the break.
They led by two, despite foul trouble for Hart and problems defending the 3. The Pistons’ 11 turnovers certainly helped the orange and blue in what was a disjointed first half.
They started by racing out to a 10-3 lead, immediately gave up a 21-10 burst and were blitzed by Harris for 13 points in the second quarter including a 3-pointer right before the horn.
By comparison, he managed a grand total of 54 points in last year’s playoff series against the Knicks as a member of the 76ers.
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Anunoby was the best Knick by a wide margin over the first 24 minutes, scoring 19 points on 6-of-11 shooting while adding three rebounds, two steals and a block.
Towns tallied 10 points, six rebounds, two steals and two assists, and had his best moments when sharing the floor with Mitchell Robinson.
The Pistons started the second half by scoring on their first eight possessions, and on the stretch of a 15-4 burst, took a four-point lead.
Malik Beasley extended it to seven later in the quarter, and Detroit entered the final stanza up eight. It was a particularly poor defensive period for the Knicks, who let the Pistons shoot an absurd 63.6 percent in the frame (14-of-22).
The Knicks turned up the intensity at the outset of the fourth quarter, forcing turnovers on the Pistons’ first two possessions.
They outscored them 15-7 over the first 4:13 of the period, pulling even on a Payne 3-pointer with 7:47 left.
The run was only starting. Soon, the Knicks would be ahead and the Garden was as loud as it had been all evening.
