The Knicks’ defensive plan against Cade Cunningham was pretty straightforward.
“OG Anunoby,” Josh Hart said. “Just OG Anunoby, man.”
Anunoby was matched up against Cunningham for much of Game 1 — and the results speak for themselves.
Anunoby was the point of attack for a Knicks defense that held Cunningham to 8-of-21 shooting from the field and forced him into six turnovers.
“Just tried to make it as difficult as possible,” Anunoby said after the game. “Make his catches difficult; pressure him, be aggressive — just try to force him into tough shots.”
Cunningham finished with 21 points, 12 assists, and six rebounds. He was a driving force behind Detroit’s success over the first three quarters but was also on the floor for most of New York’s 26-3 fourth-quarter run.
With the game still very much up in the air, Cunningham had his shot blocked by Anunoby, turned the ball over on an in-bounds and threw it away out of a pick-and-roll thanks to a bump from Anunoby and fantastic defense from Karl-Anthony Towns.
The two live-ball turnovers led to easy transition layups.
After starting the fourth down seven points, New York now led by seven with under six minutes to play. Technically, the game was still up in the air — but the defensive sequence against Cunningham seemed to take some life out of the Pistons.
“OG loves those kind of matchups, especially in the playoffs when you can be physical,” Hart said. “He’s a physical guy, able to get through screens and those kind of things. We need his offense obviously, but more important (was) his defense.”
The defense from Anunoby (five steals, two blocks) was part of what the Knicks envisioned when they re-signed him to a $212 million contract this offseason.
New York’s defense has been inconsistent — at best — this season.
But the Knicks and Anunoby delivered in key moments on Saturday night, leading to a tone-setting win — and maybe they established a blue-print on how to deal with Cunningham, who averaged 30 points on 56 percent shooting against New York in the regular season.
“They sent bodies at me… They made sure that every time I came off, they were checking me,” Cunningham said. “They were sending bodies at me all the time trying to get the ball out of my hands. They were on the same accord today (as previous games). I just wasn’t able to pick them apart enough.
“But for 3.5 quarters of the game we were all comfortable — we were getting shots that we wanted, so we just got to close out the game.”
KAT DELIVERS
Towns and Anunoby lifted the Knicks on both ends of the floor.
Anunoby had 23 points, helping the Knicks keep pace amid Jalen Brunson’s early shooting struggles. Towns had 24 points on 10-for-14 shooting, 11 rebounds, four steals, five assists and 0 turnovers.
Towns was playing up against the pick and roll often against Detroit — it will be interesting to see if the Knicks stick with that approach in Game 2.
New York was clearly well-prepared for the Pistons after a week of practices. Credit there goes to Tom Thibodeau, who pressed nearly all the right buttons on Saturday.
“We were really big on details,” Game 1 hero Cam Payne said after the win. “I feel like tonight we came out there and did what we’re supposed to do. There’s always room for improvement but I kind of feel like the guys were very locked in… made sure to lock in on the books they gave us; all the practice and walk-throughs, I feel like were pretty good (for preparation).”
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