DETROIT — The New York Knicks know that giving an inch can mean the end of a game, the end of a series. It’s a lesson they delivered firsthand to the young, exuberant and pesky Detroit Pistons on Thursday night. And it’s a lesson they’ll now carry dutifully into their second-round series against a Boston Celtics team they haven't been able to solve.
Detroit will learn — hopefully with better health, maturity and personnel — but they found out in the most painful way possible, the lesson delivered by Jalen Brunson.
Just two minutes and 35 seconds separated the series from a tasty Saturday night date at Madison Square Garden, a Game 7 of the most surprising kind.