Before this season began, the New York Knicks were thought of as the favorites to win the East. And it was easy to see why. They were coming off an Eastern Conference Finals appearance and returning with a core that included Jalen Brunson, Karl-Anthony Towns, Mikal Bridges, Josh Hart, and OG Anunoby.<\/p>\n
The Knicks have been good so far, but far from dominant. In fact, they haven\u2019t looked at all like the best team in the East. That would be the Detroit Pistons, who are seven games ahead of the Knicks and 5.5 games ahead of the second-place Celtics for the 1-seed in the conference.<\/p>\n
Advertisement<\/p>\n
ThePistons<\/a> haven\u2019t just been better overall; they\u2019ve absolutely destroyed the Knicks in their head-to-head matchups. Thursday night was their final one of the season, and it went much like the first two, with a double-digit Detroit win.<\/p>\n Cade Cunningham continued his MVP-quality season with 42 points, 8 rebounds, and 13 assists, silencing the Madison Square Garden crowd as he repeatedly got to whatever spot he wanted. Brunson\u2019s 33 weren\u2019t nearly enough to keep the Knicks in it.<\/p>\n Danny Green spoke on the No Fouls Given podcast about this lopsided rivalry. \u201cThat\u2019s the definition of belt. That is belt to a *,\u201d Green said<\/a>. \u201cThat\u2019s unacceptable, bro. That is unacceptable.\u201d*<\/p>\n Green also dismissed any excuses the Knicks might have, since they haven\u2019t been at full strength for all three matchups. He simply pointed out that the Pistons were missing their young star centers, Jalen Duren and Isaiah Stewart, for this game due to suspension. That didn\u2019t stop them from another easy win.<\/p>\n Advertisement<\/p>\n \u201cBro, what?!\u201d asked Green. \u201cRight after the break, y\u2019all get smacked at home, with their two best defensive, rebounding players off the court?\u201d<\/p>\n The Pistons were the up-and-coming team last season, and they gave the heavily-favored Knicks a hard-fought six-game series in the first round before coming up short. Now, it seems that they\u2019ve leapfrogged New York in a big way, as their average margin of victory in this season\u2019s three matchups is 28 points.<\/p>\n Green has been a Knicks believer this season, but last night\u2019s game seems to have finally broken his confidence.v\u201cI had New York as my favorites coming out of the East,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n \u201cAfter this, it\u2019s shaky, bro. They better hope they don\u2019t see Detroit in the playoffs because Cade Cunningham, every time he sees a Knicks jersey, he\u2019s pulling out multiple belts,\u201d Green added.<\/p>\n Advertisement<\/p>\n As it stands right now, the Pistons and Knicks couldn\u2019t meet until the conference finals. However, that could change by the next game. The Knicks are currently tied with the red-hot Cavaliers for third in the East. If they slip below them, they\u2019d be on a second-round collision course with Detroit, provided they could even make it past the dangerous Raptors or the Sixers in the first round.<\/p>\n This season hasn\u2019t gone the way Knicks fans hoped it would. But there\u2019s still some time to figure things out under new head coach Mike Brown.<\/p>\n Green is right, though. They\u2019d better hope they don\u2019t match up with the Pistons when it matters most, because even Knicks greatCarmelo Anthony<\/a> thinks the Pistons are a title-worthy team.<\/p>\n The post \u201cThat Is Belt to A**\u201d: Danny Green Doesn\u2019t Mince Words as Pistons Complete Season Sweep vs Knicks<\/a> appeared first on The SportsRush<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Before this season began, the New York Knicks were thought of as the favorites to win the East.…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":614068,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[3770],"tags":[679,7,909,3628,306,46,1333,188,1016,288,912,327,563,1260,1407,6,191,741,678,681,680,476,3820],"class_list":{"0":"post-614067","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-toronto-raptors","8":"tag-76ers","9":"tag-basketball","10":"tag-cade-cunningham","11":"tag-carmelo-anthony","12":"tag-cavaliers","13":"tag-celtics","14":"tag-danny-green","15":"tag-detroit-pistons","16":"tag-isaiah-stewart","17":"tag-jalen-brunson","18":"tag-jalen-duren","19":"tag-josh-hart","20":"tag-karl-anthony-towns","21":"tag-mikal-bridges","22":"tag-national-basketball-association","23":"tag-nba","24":"tag-new-york-knicks","25":"tag-og-anunoby","26":"tag-philadelphia","27":"tag-raptors","28":"tag-toronto","29":"tag-toronto-raptors","30":"tag-torontoraptors"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nba\/116104114092551724","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/614067","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=614067"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/614067\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/614068"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=614067"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=614067"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=614067"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}