J.B. Bickerstaff was part of a previous coaching staff that rallied from a 3-1 deficit to win an NBA playoff series. Ten years later, he’s trying to do it with his Detroit Pistons.
Bickerstaff was an assistant coach with Houston when it came back against the Los Angeles Clippers in the 2015 Western Conference semifinals. He has the opportunity to move the Pistons one step closer when Detroit hosts the New York Knicks on Thursday in Game 6 in their Eastern Conference first-round series.
The Knicks hold a 3-2 advantage in the best-of-seven set. Only 13 teams in NBA history have rebounded from a 3-1 playoff hole.
“The focus is just the game that’s in front of us,” Bickerstaff said. “And I do believe, why the way we’ve grown the way that we’ve grown, is because that’s the mentality we’ve had. We’re not a team that looks out five games.
“We’re a team that just looks and plays in the moment. And you don’t worry about the weight of all the other stuff that comes about if that’s the way you play.”
The Pistons overcame a pair of deflating losses at home and staved off elimination Tuesday by holding on to beat the host Knicks 106-103. Cade Cunningham scored 20 of his 24 points in the second half and Ausar Thompson had his best offensive game of the series with 22 points and also helped limit Jalen Brunson to just 16 points on 4-of-16 shooting.
“It’s a great feeling,” Cunningham said after the win. “We are still in it. This whole series has been a grind. Battling on the boards, everyone is getting after it defensively. It takes a lot of execution and mental preparation. This was a great win for us tonight.
“When our backs are against the wall, we are better. We play better and we are more together. Tonight was an example of that. Now, we have to apply that at home.”
The physicality of the series continued Tuesday and has been taking a toll on the Knicks’ health. Brunson and Josh Hart were forced to the bench with less than three minutes left in the game. New York coach Tom Thibodeau did not use a final timeout to get the two back in the game until 27.1 seconds remained.
“You’re looking at time, score, the penalty, timeouts — all of the above,” Thibodeau said in explaining why he did not call a timeout. “What’s happening in the game? Do you feel like the next possession, you know, will put it away? There’s a lot that goes into it.”
Brunson, who averaged 33.3 points in the first four games of the series, insisted that his ankle is fine. Asked about his wrist, Hart said, “My whole body is bothering me.”
With only one day between games, the Knicks will focus on how to put the bitter taste of Game 5 behind them and put themselves in position to close out the Pistons on their home court.
“We haven’t put ourselves in position to get a commanding win,” said Karl-Anthony Towns, who has held to 17 points in Game 5. “We’ve been very gritty this whole series and physical and it’s allowed us to find a way a lot of times to win. I think what was the point differential in Detroit, like three points? You only can do it so many times before it comes back to bite you.”
Even though the road team has won four of the five games in the series and the Pistons have lost an NBA record-tying nine straight home playoff games since 2008, the Knicks are not taking anything for granted as they look to advance to the Eastern Conference semifinals for the third consecutive season.
“We’ve got to go out there and win the game,” Hart said. “We’ve got to go out there and compete. We’ve got to go out there and be physical. Not worry about foul calls, or refs, or anything like that. We’ve got to make sure we can control what we can control.”
