EmailPrintOpen Extended ReactionsNEW YORK -- Knicks guard Jalen Brunson looked at the World Series baseball game from his locker and drew from that to describe his team's approach."Just continue to hit singles," Brunson said following the Knicks' first win, a 111-97 win over the Detroit Pistons at Madison Square Garden. "Just get on base and hit singles and focus on little things until we get our rhythm."It quelled the semipanic surrounding the defending NBA champions, if only for a moment. But for what the win lacked in style points, it made up for in trends that needed reversing.It broke the recent dominance the Pistons had over the Knicks in the regular season, as the Pistons won all three meetings by an average of 30 points last season. The Knicks were also a porous second half team, being outscored in the first three games by 26 points.They blitzed the Pistons in the middle two quarters, outscoring them 63-25. For that stretch, they looked like the New York Knicks of the playoffs. In delivering the conference-leading Pistons their first loss of the season, swingman Mikal Bridges woke up, hitting four 3s after not hitting any in the first three games."We had more good moments in this game in totality than we did in the first three games, and that's why we got the win," Knicks head coach Mike Brown said. "Our awareness, our level of physicality on [Detroit's shooters] was a lot better than the previous game."Brunson didn't exactly break out, going 5-for-18 for 23 points. But he stayed aggressive and forcing the action, getting Pistons defensive ace Ausar Thompson to foul out in the fourth quarter as the Pistons were attempting a late charge.It was Karl-Anthony Towns who again has played to his personal standard, and he was apparently challenged by Brown at halftime to do a better job on Pistons center Paul Reed. Reed, pressed into more consistent duty due to the injury to All-Star center Jalen Duren, was an early ball of activity as the Pistons took a 15-point lead."I told him the truth, 'KAT, the guy is killing us on the glass and if he's getting a rebound, he's putting it back up. If he catches it on the perimeter, guard him,'" Brown said. "And he did those things. I thought that shift in mindset was big for us in the second half."Towns' 27 points and 20 rebounds was the 14th time he scored at least 25 points and grabbed 20 rebounds, this instance being the fourth time he has done it in a Knicks uniform."I thought we did a good job of picking up our intensity and our physicality. I said before the game for us to win this, we have to be the best version of ourselves and not worry about everything else that's going on," Towns said.Corralling Pistons All-NBA guard Cade Cunningham had to be first on the list, or close to it. Cunningham scored 40 in his last visit to Madison Square Garden last season and looked on his way to another banner performance but shot 4-of-14 after the first quarter.The Knicks were able to lock in on Cunningham and with no other credible scoring option, easily chipped away to build their own sizable lead."Our guys realized, no I can't react to them. I got to dictate to them what's going to happen," Brown said. "And do it with a smart level of physicality."Brown wasn't under any delusions about one night, while acknowledging there's growth yet to happen."Is it fixed? No. it ain't fixed. Nothing's really fixed. What tonight shows us is we're more than capable if we put our minds to it, and that's what we got to continue to try to build off of."
