5 Facts About New York For 2025 Playoff Series

The Detroit Pistons and New York Knicks will face off in the first round of the NBA playoffs.
The Knicks added Karl-Anthony Towns and Mikal Bridges during the offseason.
Pistons star Cade Cunningham has performed well against the Knicks this season.

The No. 6 seed Detroit Pistons will be matching up against the third-seed New York Knicks in the first round of the NBA playoffs, with Game 1 tipping off on Saturday.

The Pistons will hope Game 1 of the playoff series will go better than their first game against the Knicks in the regular season, where the Knicks dominated early on their way to a 30-point win at Little Caesars Arena.

But if the Pistons’ current trend against the Knicks has any merit, as they currently have a three-game win streak against New York, Detroit might soon have to make plans for a second-round matchup.

Of course, the playoffs are a different beast than the regular season, and the Pistons should expect to find a different (and possibly more motivated) Knicks team at Madison Square Garden on Saturday. And since this is the first Pistons playoff squad since 2019 facing a Knicks team in the playoffs for the fourth time in the last five years, things might not go as easily against the Knicks as they have in the regular season.

Here are some key things to know about the Knicks as they prepare to host the Pistons in the playoffs.

Jalen Brunson, PG: 26.0 points per game, 2.9 rebounds per game, 7.3 assists per game.

Josh Hart, SG: 13.6 PPG, 5.9 RPG, 9.6 APG.

Mikal Bridges, SF: 17.6 PPG, 3.7 RPG, 3.2 APG.

OG Anunoby, PF: 18.0 PPG, 4.8 RPG, 2.2 APG.

Karl-Anthony Towns, C: 24.4 PPG, 12.8 RPG, 3.1 APG.

Off the bench

Miles McBride, PG: 9.5 PPG, 2.5 RPG, 2.9 APG.

Precious Achiuwa, C: 6.6 PPG, 5.6 RPG, 1.0 APG.

Cameron Payne, PG: 6.9 PPG. 1.4 RPG. 2.8 APG.

Landry Shamet, SG: 5.7 PPG, 1.2 RPG, 0.5 APG.

Delon Wright, PG: 4.3 PPG, 1.4 RPG, 2.1 APG.

Coach: Tom Thibodeau, 38-47 career playoff record, 0 conference titles.

No. 1: New York added some big names in offseason

After losing in the Eastern Conference semifinals for the second season in a row, the Knicks made two of the league’s biggest trades of the 2024 offseason, landing five-time All-Star Karl-Anthony Towns and NBA ironman Mikal Bridges.

Towns has been an especially impactful addition for the Knicks, who have benefited from the big man’s rebounding and shooting abilities. Towns is second in the NBA in rebounds per game (12.8) and second on the team in scoring (24.4 points per game), behind star point guard Jalen Brunson (26.0).

And he’s not just elite in the paint. Towns also leads the Knicks in 3-point shooting percentage (42.0%), backing up his claim to be the best-shooting big man ever.

As for Bridges, he hasn’t made as big an impact this season as many Knicks fans would have hoped, but he does fit well into Knicks coach Tom Thibodeau’s playstyle. Because like many Knicks players, he plays a lot of minutes.

No. 2: Knicks starters play a lot of minutes

Bridges led all NBA players with 3,036 minutes played this season, playing nearly three full games worth of minutes more than the next player on the list.

That’s not unusual for Bridges, however, as he has the longest active games-played streak (556 games) and is one of only a handful of players to play in all 82 games this season.

By the way, the player with the second-most minutes played in the NBA this season is Bridges’ teammate Josh Hart (2,897), who led the NBA with a career-high 37.6 minutes played per game this season. In fact, the Knicks have three of the top-10 minutes-getters this season (OG Anunoby is the third, No. 9 at 2,706 minutes), while no other NBA team has more than one in the top 10.

Basically, Knicks players have accumulated a lot of miles this season, and the Pistons hope that wear-and-tear will slow them down come playoff time.

No. 3: Cunningham has dominated the Knicks this season

Even if the Knicks come out healthy and refreshed, they’ll still have one puzzle they haven’t been able to solve this season: Cade Cunningham.

The Pistons star has arguably shined the brightest this season against the Knicks. Two of his 10 highest-scoring games this season have come against New York (both 36-point performances), with one coming with the first-ever triple-double from a Pistons player at Madison Square Garden.

Meanwhile, the Pistons’ defense has slowly been figuring out the Knicks’ top scorer, Jalen Brunson. After Brunson put up 36 points in his first matchup against the Pistons in November, the Pistons defense has limited the All-NBA point guard to 31, 31 and 15 points in their last three matchups.

But that’s not entirely unsurprising, because while the Knicks have put together their second consecutive 50-win season, their performance against tougher competition has left a big question mark on their playoff aspirations.

No. 4: The Knicks have wilted against top teams

The Knicks may have one of the most talented top-to-bottom rosters in the NBA, but that roster hasn’t played so well against the league’s best competition.

New York is 6-12 against the top six teams in the Eastern Conference, while going a combined 0-8 against the No. 1 seed Cleveland Cavaliers and No. 2 seed Boston Celtics. They haven’t done much better in the West, going 4-8 against the conference’s top six teams.

These struggles have only magnified as the season has wound down. The last time the Knicks beat a team that finished with a better overall record was over two months ago, with a 124-118 Feb. 3 win over the Houston Rockets.

No. 5: The Pistons and Knicks have a contentious playoff history

It’s been 33 years since the Pistons and Knicks last matched up in the NBA playoffs, most recently with the Knicks winning a back-and-forth first-round series in 1992.

The Pistons handled the Knicks in the 1990 conference semifinals, winning four out of five games against New York on their way to winning their second NBA title.

But their most heated series was their first, with a legendary Game 5 moment that Pistons legend Isiah Thomas classifies as one of the greatest of his career.

With the Pistons down by eight points with 1:34 remaining in the closeout game, Thomas scored 16 points down the stretch to force overtime. And though the Pistons lost the game and the series in the overtime period, it was a moment that helped kick start Thomas’ stardom.

How to watch Pistons vs Knicks Game 1

Date: Saturday, April 19.

Location: Madison Square Garden.

Tipoff: 6 p.m. ET.

Channel: ESPN.

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5 facts about New York for 2025 playoff series