{"id":173658,"date":"2025-07-16T03:20:20","date_gmt":"2025-07-16T03:20:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/173658\/"},"modified":"2025-07-16T03:20:20","modified_gmt":"2025-07-16T03:20:20","slug":"knicks-lack-of-depth-could-become-an-issue-against-pistons","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/173658\/","title":{"rendered":"Knicks&#8217; lack of depth could become an issue against Pistons"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>DETROIT \u2014 Through three games, Dennis Schroder is outscoring <a href=\"https:\/\/nypost.com\/2025\/04\/25\/sports\/karl-anthony-towns-sure-didnt-look-soft-as-knicks-game-3-spark\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">the entire Knicks<\/a> bench.<\/p>\n<p>The Pistons guard has been a somewhat unexpected factor so far in these best-of-seven, opening-round playoff series, but the above statistic is also emblematic of the Knicks\u2019 reserves struggling to make an impact.<\/p>\n<p>Schroder has scored 46 points in this series, and the Knicks\u2019 bench has accounted for 39, and only 17 in the last two games. <\/p>\n<p>Dennis Schroder and Malik Beasley high-five against the New York Knicks during Round 1, Game 3.  NBAE via Getty Images<\/p>\n<p>The reserves did play a major role in the come-from-behind, Game 1 victory, particularly Cam Payne, who exploded for 11 of his 14 points in the opener. <\/p>\n<p>The <a href=\"https:\/\/nypost.com\/2025\/04\/25\/sports\/the-knicks-have-to-pick-their-jalen-brunson-playoff-moments\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Knicks may not have won<\/a> without him.<\/p>\n<p>But since, Payne has managed just four points in 13 minutes. <\/p>\n<p>Miles McBride hasn\u2019t looked right, either, shooting 4-of-14 from the field. <\/p>\n<p>Landry Shamet has scored only two points in the entire series.<\/p>\n<p>Cameron Payne dribbles defended by Detroit Pistons guard Dennis Schroder in the first half during Game 3. Rick Osentoski-Imagn Images<\/p>\n<p>Mitchell Robinson, in fact, has been the most consistent player off the bench for Tom Thibodeau\u2019s team. <\/p>\n<p>He was effective in Game 3, producing four rebounds and two steals in 16 minutes. <\/p>\n<p>Thibodeau has begun to play Robinson with Karl-Anthony Towns more in a two big man look that <a href=\"https:\/\/nypost.com\/2025\/04\/25\/sports\/heroes-zeros-from-knicks-game-3-win-over-pistons\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">gives the Knicks more<\/a> rim protection and size.<\/p>\n<p>Really, it has been a mismatch if you compare the two benches. <\/p>\n<p>Cade Cunningham plays defense against Mitchell Robinson of the New York Knicks. NBAE via Getty Images<\/p>\n<p>It hasn\u2019t just been Schroder. <\/p>\n<p>Malik Beasley has been almost as potent, scoring 41 points in the three games, and rookie Ronald Holland II is coming off a strong performance, in which he had six points, two rebounds and a block in 12 minutes.<\/p>\n<p>Depth hasn\u2019t been a Knicks strength all year. <\/p>\n<p>They are top-heavy, led by the their-scoring starters. <\/p>\n<p>They were last in the league in <a href=\"https:\/\/nypost.com\/2025\/04\/20\/sports\/mitchell-robinson-comes-through-for-knicks-off-the-bench\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">scoring from their bench<\/a>, at 21.7 points. <\/p>\n<p>The Lakers, at 26.2, were next to last.<\/p>\n<p>Miles McBride handles the ball against the Detroit Pistons during Game 3. NBAE via Getty Images<\/p>\n<p>That has carried over into the postseason. <\/p>\n<p>It has yet to hurt them, but this series could have a long way to go still. <\/p>\n<p>Sunday\u2019s meeting at Little Caesars Arena will likely determine that, if the Knicks can take a 3-1 stranglehold or the Pistons can even it up at two games apiece.\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"DETROIT \u2014 Through three games, Dennis Schroder is outscoring the entire Knicks bench. The Pistons guard has been&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":173659,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3773],"tags":[7,1024,296,188,3860,6,11,197,191,297,66],"class_list":{"0":"post-173658","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-detroit-pistons","8":"tag-basketball","9":"tag-dennis-schroder","10":"tag-detroit","11":"tag-detroit-pistons","12":"tag-detroitpistons","13":"tag-nba","14":"tag-nba-playoffs","15":"tag-nba-playoffs-2025","16":"tag-new-york-knicks","17":"tag-pistons","18":"tag-sports"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nba\/114860761244258590","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/173658","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=173658"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/173658\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/173659"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=173658"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=173658"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=173658"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}