Pistons vs. Knicks final score: Detroit falls horribly in New York, out of playoffs

With the struggling Knicks on the back-end of a back-to-back and without their smooth rookie Kristaps Porzingis, Saturday night's game at Madison Square Garden was a game the Pistons really should have won (you know, before they started playing and they prove there was no way they deserved to win). I don't want to say "needed" to win, but yeah, they also needed to win it to at least stay in the playoff picture going into Sunday. But they didn't; they lost by an ugly 13, 102-89.

As Steve mentioned in the preview, despite the Knicks being the Knicks, they still posed a dangerous threat, alluding to the Feb. 4 game in which Arron Afflalo and Robin Lopez carried the Knicks back from a 20-point deficit to near victory. Well, the same two -- along with Carmelo Anthony -- carried the Knicks to a rather easy win on Saturday and there was no Reggie Jackson to save the Pistons this time. Former Piston Spell Check scored 20 points. Lopez and his crazy head of hair had his way with Drummond and his crazy shoulder of hair for much of the night, scoring 21 points. Anthony had 24, 10 rebounds and six assists.

Jackson shot 1-14 in the final three quarters of the game, finishing 3-for-17 shooting. He got zero help from Kentavious Caldwell-Pope (3-9) and Marcus Morris (2-11).

Andre Drummond and Tobias Harris put up fine box score numbers, but they weren't enough.

The Pistons as a team shot 39 percent from the field and 26 percent from three.

No time to dwell as they will now have to play the back-end of a back-to-back on Sunday against the Portland Trail Blazers.

Box Score

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