Typically, when a young team faces a roster full of playoff-tested veterans in the NBA Playoffs, the latter squad garners all of the support in debates and predictions, especially when they have the higher seed.
For the Detroit Pistons and the New York Knicks, the situation has been different. The Knicks have a lot of pressure placed on them, despite being favored to win the series. It doesn’t help when former NBA stars are predicting the series, and even give an edge to the underdogs.
Former NBA Champions, Kevin Garnett and Paul Pierce, recently discussed the Pistons-Knicks series on ‘KG Certified.’ While Pierce believed the Knicks would win the series, he’s not that confident it’s a sure thing. For Garnett, he’s picking the Pistons to move on.
“This is the get-on right here, boy. This is the prime time,” Garnett said about the series. “I feel like somebody gonna get hurt in that series,” Pierce added.
“I got Detroit in this,” Garnett said. “Detroit plays HARD, bro. They got a superstar. They got a young superstar who wants smoke, he wants the last shot, he made everybody better. JB [Bickerstaff] should be Coach of the Year. Nobody had Detroit in none of they lists!!”
Last season, the Pistons were a 14-win team, failing to collect at least 20 wins for the second season in a row. The head coach was fired, the front office was revamped, and questions surrounded the young face of the franchise, Cade Cunningham.
The difference a year makes.
The Knicks, meanwhile, dropped out of the second round of the playoffs for the second season in a row last year. They went into the 2024 offseason looking to load up a top-heavy roster, making multiple blockbuster deals. They are expected to make a run.
“I don’t know if [the Pistons] win the series,” Pierce said. “Whoever’s winning the series is not going to win in the second round because they are going to be so beat up because of the physicality of this series. This is gonna be the most physical series right here. They are going to be so beat up.
While Pierce ultimately believes the Knicks will put the Pistons down, the former Celtics star added that there is a scenario where he sees Detroit pulling off the upset.
“If it goes seven games, I’ll take Detroit,” he explained. “Knicks gotta beat them in like five or six. If it goes seven, I think it’s gonna favor Detroit because when you get to that seventh game, that body’s feeling different and this is a physical series and the Knicks ain’t got no depth? That’s gonna hurt.”
