Knicks 124, Pistons 99: “This is a team full of secret weapons.”

The New York Knicks defeated the Detroit Pistons 124-99 on Monday, giving the visiting Motowners little to no option to pull off an upset.

Here are 11 notes on the Knickerbocker victory headlined by DWilTheCommunityAdvocate: “This is a team full of secret weapons.“

One

The Knicks limited the Pistons to 6-of-23 shooting in the first quarter of play. That’s shooting barely 26% from the floor, which is not optimal.

New York, on the other hand, lit the scoreboard to the tune of a 36-point first period. That’s pretty much the game right there.

Two

The Pistons fought mad hard in the second quarter and all that yielded was a 16-10 run and edging New York by a meager two points in a stanza that ended 25-23 in favor of Motown.

New York went to the locker room in possession of a saucy 59-42 lead and they could have very well stayed in there because everybody including Monty Williams knew that there was no comeback happening.

Three

Cue the third quarter. 36-24 for your beloved Knickerbockers in another Piston-crunching quarter.

Donte DiVincenzo had scored five 3-point shots before the break and he added five more right after it... only for the refs to remove his 10th from the stat sheet and force poor DiVo to wait until the final seconds of the game to reach that milestone—one that in years past was achieved by both JR Smith and Evan Fournier.

Four

Fournier has the single-season 3-point scoring record with 241 long-range shots converted. He did it in 2022 when he was still reasonably baked into Tom Thibodeau’s recipe for success. Not last year, definitely not this one.

DiVo’s 11 on the night brought his 2024 tally up to 234, just seven shy of matching Fournier’s record and eight from breaking it and writing his name in golden letters into the franchise history books.

Five

The Knicks were so good that even DaQuan Jeffries, off of signing a fully guaranteed deal for the remainder of the season, saw some action and still had enough time to bang a three-pointer himself.

Six

No such luck for Alec Burks, who didn’t play against his former teammates on Monday nursing a sprained right shoulder. Not that the Knicks missed him, anyway.

Another one that keeps getting Thibs’ cold shoulder is Shake Milton, who has yet to crack the rotation for good and got a meager five garbage minutes.

Seven

The Knicks honored the great Willis Reed on their HBCU Night on Monday. The late Reed attended HBCU Grambling State University and The Captain was well-paid tribute before, during, and after the game.

Our boys donned Reed’s No. 19 on the back while warming up and then proceeded to win their 43rd game of the season. Quite pleasing to watch.

Eight

Speaking of winning games. The Knicks have cooked the opposition they’ve faced of late winning six of their last seven games.

The active streak is only at W2, but that’s enough to have New York occupying the No. 4 seed all by itself and just half a game behind Cleveland while a full game above Orlando in fifth position.

Nine

Evan Fournier broke John Starks mark. Donte DiVincenzo will break Fournier’s figure. Will Deuce McBride break Divo’s?

Only 17 players in NBA history have more than 241 three-pointers in a single season including Fournier and soon DiVincenzo. Among those 17, only Steph Curry, Klay Thompson, James Harden, Damian Lillard, and Buddy Hield have reached that mark in multiple seasons.

Ten

Bojan Bogdanovic left the game “nicked up,” those words being uttered by Thibs in his postgame presser. Asked to expand on his comment, Thibs simply said Bogey had “soreness.”

Eleven

Mitchell Robinson is the closest Knick to making a return to the floor. OG Anunoby should follow suit. Julius Randle, all of a sudden and out of the blue, might not come back. Yikes.