The New York Knicks will make their lone appearance at the Palace of Auburn Hills this season and look to take a 2-0 lead in the season series against the Detroit Pistons.
Both Teams Enter Contest Looking To Bounce Back
Both New York and Detroit are coming off losses to the Boston Celtics in their last game. The Knicks took a 97-89 loss on Tuesday night behind 47 points from the Boston bench. As for the Pistons, they were defeated 102-95 on Wednesday night after shooting 38 percent from the field and committing a total of 16 turnovers.
Projected Starting Lineups
For the Knicks, PG: Langston Galloway, SG: Arron Afflalo, SF: Carmelo Anthony, PF: Kristaps Porzingis and C: Robin Lopez
For the Pistons, PG: Reggie Jackson, SG: Kentavious Caldwell-Pope SF: Marcus Morris, PF: Ersan Ilyasova and C: Andre Drummond
Last Time These Teams Meet
New York defended home court on December 29th, 2015 to earn a 108-96 victory against the Pistons. Anthony scored 24 points while Derrick Williams came up big tallying up 16 points in the final quarter of the contest. A total of six Knickerbockers finished with at least 10 points or more. Their offense wasn’t the only thing they had going their way, they also held Drummond to 13 points on a 5-of-15 performance. Jackson also showed his shares of struggles shooting the ball going 6-of-17 from the floor.
Game Will Be Televised On National Television
On January 11th, the Pistons announced on their twitter page that the game was pushed back 30 minutes to a 7:00 p.m. start time after TNT picked up the game as part of their Thursday night doubleheader. The second game of the night will feature the Los Angeles Lakers vs. New Orleans Pelicans. Prior to being replaced, the original game for the first slot was supposed to be the Houston Rockets vs. Phoenix Suns. With the first time all-star Drummond and his team making some noise in the Eastern Conference this season, they earned a spot on TNT for the first time since the 2008-09 season.
Jennings To New York Before Trade Deadline?
On January 1st, Frank Isola, from the New York Daily News, reported “Brandon Jennings is on the Knicks’ radar, but the club wasn’t impressed with what they saw from Jennings during Detroit's loss to the Knicks on Tuesday [Dec.29], according to sources familiar with their thinking”. Jennings, who made his season debut against the Knicks in their last encounter, is averaging seven points and three assists per contest. Jennings has publicly gone on to speak about his discomfort of continuing to come off the bench in an interview with CBS Sports, saying “My hat goes off to anybody who’s had a career coming off the bench, cause that’s tough”.
The rumors of Jennings to NY have calmed down and it seems that now the Knicks are heavily focused on acquiring Atlanta Hawks’ point guard Jeff Teague. The Knicks, who are heavily in need of a starting point guard, may have a better chance to land Jennings over Teague with the assets they have. The trade would not only benefit New York, but Jennings as well, with him getting the starting gig he has been dwelling for.