Knicks need more than Jalen Brunson (i.e. KAT) to battle Pistons

The New York Knicks will need more offensive support for Jalen Brunson if they hope to regain home-court advantage when they visit the Detroit Pistons on Thursday for Game 3 in their Eastern Conference first-round series.The Pistons evened the series in Monday’s 100-94 Game 2 win by targeting Brunson and capitalizing on Karl-Anthony Towns’ off-game.After scoring 23 points on 10-of-14 shooting in Game 1, Towns had only 10 points Monday and took just three shots in the second half — none in the fourth quarter.Knicks coach Tom Thibodeau said that he’s not overly concerned with Towns’ lack of offense in the second half.”If they’re going to commit to two or three people on him, I don’t want him forcing shots,” Thibodeau said Wednesday. “But there’s things that he can do and we can do to get him a second and third look, so that’s what we have to try to do. There (are) ways in transition that we can search him out as well.”Brunson, who finished with a game-high 37 points and took one-third of the team’s 81 field-goal attempts, said after Game 2 that he needs to do a better job of getting his teammates more involved. The Knicks had just 15 assists, their lowest total this season.Thibodeau said the focus the last two days has been rebounding. Detroit owned a 48-34 edge on the boards — including 12 offensive rebounds that led to 13 second-chance points.”We’ve got to make a commitment to get it done,” he said. “So each game teaches you something. You’ve got to learn from it and make corrections.”Towns, who had only six rebounds in 33 minutes Monday, said the team will be focused on that Thursday.”I’ve watched the tape (of Game 2) myself, and we’ve had two days to fix it and get ourselves right mentally and physically for (Thursday),” Towns said.One concern that Thibodeau raised following the loss was the perception of officiating calls favoring the Pistons. Detroit coach J.B. Bickerstaff has a different opinion.”We’re happy with the way the games are being called,” Bickerstaff said Wednesday. “We can survive physicality. So we’ve got no issue with it. When you look at a comparison of the guys who are handling the ball a majority of the time, their guy (Brunson) is leading the league in free-throw attempts. Cade (Cunningham) is ninth at this point.”

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