{"id":6246,"date":"2025-05-02T04:00:09","date_gmt":"2025-05-02T04:00:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/6246\/"},"modified":"2025-05-02T04:00:09","modified_gmt":"2025-05-02T04:00:09","slug":"nba-playoffs-jalen-brunson-hits-game-winning-3-pointer-to-close-out-knicks-first-round-series-win-over-pistons","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/6246\/","title":{"rendered":"NBA playoffs: Jalen Brunson hits game-winning 3-pointer to close out Knicks’ first-round series win over Pistons"},"content":{"rendered":"

Jalen Brunson<\/a>‘s 3-pointer from the top of the arc with 4.3 seconds remaining in regulation lifted the New York Knicks<\/a> to a 116-113 win<\/a> over the Detroit Pistons<\/a> in Game 6 of their first-round NBA playoff series. With the win, the Knicks advanced to the Eastern Conference semifinals to face the Boston Celtics.<\/p>\n

Brunson finished with 40 points, shooting 15 of 33 from the floor, while adding seven assists and four rebounds to push past Detroit and avoid a Game 7 at Madison Square Garden. Mikal Bridges<\/a> added 25 and OG Anunoby<\/a> scored 22 for the Knicks. Karl-Anthony Towns<\/a> finished with 10 points, but grabbed 15 rebounds before fouling out with under a minute to go.<\/p>\n

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Cade Cunningham<\/a>‘s jumper from the free-throw line with five minutes left gave the Pistons a 105-103 lead, finishing off a 13-0 run. Josh Hart<\/a> tied the game with a layup on the Knicks’ next possession, but Detroit scored the next seven points while New York missed six consecutive shots.<\/p>\n

The Knicks had an opportunity to regain the lead with one minute left, but Ausar Thompson<\/a> prevented Brunson from getting a shot and Detroit took over. Jalen Duren<\/a> made one of two free throws to give the Pistons a 113-111 lead. But after a timeout, Bridges put back a Brunson miss to tie the score with 35 seconds remaining. On the ensuing possession, Cunningham missed a layup, Hart rebounded and then Brunson did his thing, shaking Thompson badly to free himself up for that game-winner.<\/p>\n

“Jalen’s shot, what can you say?” Knicks coach Tom Thibodeau said afterward. “He’s at his best when his best is needed.”<\/p>\n

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Cunningham led the Pistons with 23 points, eight assists and seven rebounds, but shot 0 for 8 on 3-pointers. Duren followed with 21 points and six boards, providing a key defensive presence in the paint. Malik Beasley<\/a> added 20, hitting 6-of-13 3s, but didn’t make any in the second half.<\/p>\n

Knicks get hot early, but Pistons surge back<\/p>\n

Brunson asserted himself early on, scoring 15 points with four assists in the first quarter. He shot 7 for 9 from the floor, leading a 60% New York shooting effort (4 of 10 on 3s).<\/p>\n

The Knicks built their lead to 42-27 on Towns’ jumper two minutes into the second quarter, but Detroit finally made a run from there beginning with a Dennis Schr\u00f6der<\/a> 3. The Pistons outscored New York 19-8 over a six-minute stretch to tie the score at 49-49, fueled by three 3-pointers by Beasley with Cunningham and Duren working their lob game inside.<\/p>\n

Detroit took its first lead of the game at 58-57 with one minute before halftime on a short Cunningham jumper and went into the locker room leading 61-59 on Beasley’s sixth 3-pointer of the half. That finished off a 38-22 quarter for the Pistons.<\/p>\n

Pistons go cold after halftime<\/p>\n

The Knicks came out strong again in the third quarter, going on a 15-6 run during the opening four minutes, capped by a Brunson 3-pointer. New York opened up a 10-point margin on a 3 from Anunoby and, more importantly, they tagged Duren with his fourth foul.<\/p>\n

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With Isaiah Stewart<\/a> missing his fifth game in the series with right knee inflammation, Pistons coach J.B. Bickerstaff briefly decided to go without a center. But the Knicks easily drove to the basket and Detroit put Paul Reed<\/a> into the game before they could fall further behind.<\/p>\n

The Knicks extended their lead behind five points from Brunson, and appeared in danger of losing momentum when Anunoby was called for a foul for throwing Schr\u00f6der to the floor. Knicks coach Tom Thibodeau challenged the call, arguing that Schr\u00f6der held Anunoby first. New York lost the challenge, yet maintained a double-digit lead on a 3 from Bridges and put-back dunk by Josh Hart<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Detroit shot 6-of-18 in the quarter, including 0-of-7 from behind the arc. Tim Hardaway Jr.<\/a> finally broke that cold spell with a 3 midway through the fourth, his only make from long range in the game.<\/p>\n

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The Pistons finished their season with a tough series against the Knicks, making the playoffs as the No. 6 seed with a 44-38 record after going a league-worst 14-68<\/a> last season. New York gets to continue its title aspirations with a clash against the reigning NBA champion Celtics that will tip off on Monday, game time to be announced.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Jalen Brunson‘s 3-pointer from the top of the arc with 4.3 seconds remaining in regulation lifted the New…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":2279,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[1026,7,75,909,1024,188,1016,288,912,327,563,910,1260,6,1136,191,741,2617,911],"class_list":{"0":"post-6246","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-nba","8":"tag-ausar-thompson","9":"tag-basketball","10":"tag-boston-celtics","11":"tag-cade-cunningham","12":"tag-dennis-schroder","13":"tag-detroit-pistons","14":"tag-isaiah-stewart","15":"tag-jalen-brunson","16":"tag-jalen-duren","17":"tag-josh-hart","18":"tag-karl-anthony-towns","19":"tag-malik-beasley","20":"tag-mikal-bridges","21":"tag-nba","22":"tag-new-york","23":"tag-new-york-knicks","24":"tag-og-anunoby","25":"tag-paul-reed","26":"tag-tim-hardaway-jr"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nba\/114436244991066407","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6246","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=6246"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6246\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2279"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6246"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6246"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6246"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}