Steve Popper

1 week ago | newsday.com | Steve Popper

GREENBURGH — With a week before the start of the first-round playoff series the Knicks have put together film, crafted scouting reports in book form and plotted out every tendency, every contingency in the game plans that Tom Thibodeau has assembled. And somewhere in there you can be certain is a plan on how to slow Cade Cunningham. The Knicks boast one of the most heralded defensive coaches in the game and have three wings with size and versatility, all of the elements necessary to do the job.

1 week ago | newsday.com | Steve Popper

The Knicks enter the postseason matched up with a young and inexperienced Detroit Pistons squad and heavily favored. So it’s worth remembering that in the last three postseason appearances the Knicks were ousted by a lower-seed. Here are three keys to watch for as the Knicks begin their postseason run. 1. Be the bestCade Cunningham has emerged as an All-NBA player this season and some would argue he gives the Pistons the best player in the series.

1 week ago | newsday.com | Steve Popper

In all of the stories you will read about the Knicks' first-round playoff matchup with the Detroit Pistons this week you likely won’t find one about P.J. Tucker’s on-court contributions in the series. After all, he’d played just two minutes all season until this last week when the Knicks rested their key pieces and inserted players from the end of the bench into the lineup. But he does have a role. The one he was signed for which is serving as a leader in the locker room.

1 week ago | newsday.com | Steve Popper

The Detroit Pistons have not hosted a playoff game at Little Caesars Arena in six years and are intent on not allowing the Knicks fans to take over when they meet in Game 3 and 4 in the opening round of the postseason. The Pistons are restricting sales to locals only as they put playoff tickets on sale.

1 week ago | newsday.com | Steve Popper

The Knicks' advance scouts were already weeks into their work on the Detroit Pistons. Four of the Knicks starters worked out before Sunday afternoon's game and were in street clothes, joined six seconds into the game by Mikal Bridges, who only suited up to keep his consecutive- games-played streak intact. That left the Knicks to run out the clock on a regular-season finale that more closely resembled a summer league game — with maybe more at stake in a summer league game, too.