GAME NIGHT: 2025 NBA Playoffs Round 1, Game 5 – 7:30 PM (6:30 PM CDT): NYK (3-1) vs. DET (1-3); TNT, TruTV, MAX, MSG

Tonight, at 7:30 PM (6:30 PM CDT), the New York Knicks (3-1) will host the Detroit Pistons (1-3) in Round 1, Game 1 of the 2025 NBA Playoffs (TNT, TruTV, MAX, MSG).

It’s time for the Knicks to finish the job. It’s time for them to beat the Pistons in this series. Nobody wants this tightly contested series to return to Detroit.

The fourth win of a seven-game series is always the hardest to secure, and Detroit is going to do everything in its power to prevent the Knicks from winning this series in five games. Especially after the controversial no-call on Josh Hart that helped the Knicks secure a one-point win in Game 4, the Pistons will be working extra hard tonight with massive potato chips on their shoulders.

The Knicks exceeded Detroit’s physicality to win Game 4. Now, they must defend this new tier of play and reestablish their identity as the gritty Knickerbockers. The ones who outlast opponents on the court. The ones who outwit their way to victories. The ones who leave it all out there in every playoff game.

But don’t say I didn’t warn you. Cade Cunningham is coming for the Knicks tonight. Tim Hardaway Jr. is coming for the Knicks tonight. JB Bickerstaff is coming for the Knicks tonight. So, New York needs to defend the Garden. The Knicks need to win Game 5 at the Mecca of Basketball. Just like it says on their warmup T-shirts, the Knicks must “win for the boroughs.” Imagine the Garden party that will ensue if the Knicks win tonight.

“It’s the NBA playoffs,” said Karl-Anthony Towns after the Knicks won Game 4. Towns delivered an exceptional fourth-quarter performance to help his team improve to 3-1 in this first-round series. “You expect nothing but the greatest competition right now in NBA basketball this season. You go out there, you wanna match their physicality. You understand you’re in Detroit. You’re playing Detroit, who hasn’t been in the playoffs, and they have a lot of pride right now. They haven’t seen the playoffs in a while, so they want to fight for their city. And as much as they want to fight for their city, we’re trying to fight for our city.”

Prepare for some screaming matches. Prepare for some bench brawls. It’s going to be a tight game in every quarter, and the Knicks must at least dominate in the fourth quarter again and continue to defend Detroit’s best players throughout the game.

Interestingly, it was revealed today that when the officials reported the missed call on Josh Hart at the very end of Game 4, they neglected to report a missed foul call against Tobias Harris. You see, Tobias Harris made contact with Hart right before Hart made contact with Tim Hardaway Jr. on that missed foul call that Detroit’s sports anchors investigated like a crime scene.

But the NBA didn’t deem Tobias Harris’s contact against Josh Hart to be a “missed foul call.” “Harris and Hart briefly engage and disengage during the rebound,” the NBA wrote. It’s important to remember the NBA lets some calls go in the playoffs, especially in a series as physical as this one between the Knicks and Pistons. But Pistons head coach JB Bickerstaff doesn’t care how forgiving the NBA is.

“They do let you play more physical,” said Bickerstaff. “Well, some people get to play more physical. […] I think these past couple games, it’s kind of hard for me to believe Cade [Cunningham] gets to the free-throw line only four times, as much as he drives and gets to the paint.”

Bickerstaff added, “We like to play physical basketball. You won’t hear us whining about it.”

Umm… what? I think the Pistons have been doing quite a bit of whining lately!

Quell the whining, Knicks! End this series TONIGHT!