Coming into the 2025 NBA Playoffs, the New York Knicks profiled as a team that had the talent to compete with anyone in the Eastern Conference. But after their Game 2 loss to the Detroit Pistons on Monday night, Mike Francesa quickly began poking holes in the Knicks’ chances of making much noise.
Francesa predictably came with a laundry list of complaints about what he saw from the Knicks in Game 2 on his postgame live stream on YouTube. At the forefront of that list was the play of Karl-Anthony Towns, who finished the game with just ten points on 11 shots from the field.
While Towns largely got the brunt of Francesa’s grievances, Knicks head coach Tom Thibodeau was also critiqued for how he was unable to integrate Towns into the offense better.
“I mean, Towns’ game is utterly atrocious,” said Francesa. “He played 33 minutes and he had 10 points. He had ten points. He had six rebounds, he didn’t get an offensive rebound. He didn’t get to the foul line, he didn’t get an assist, he didn’t get a steal. He had one block. That game is an embarrassment! And I blame him, and I blame the coach. But if you are going to make all these guys… And that includes OG [Anunoby], and that includes [Josh] Hart, and that includes [Mikal] Bridges, and that includes Towns… If you are going to make them stand around and watch [Jalen] Brunson dribble the ball, back and forth, side to side, head fake, head fake, dive, dive. Fine, he’s gonna score points. He takes 30 shots.
“Anybody who takes 30 shots is gonna score points. And half the time, he has got to sucker guys to get to the foul line, which he did 11 times tonight. Turned the ball over six times. That’s not an offense! They might not beat the Pistons playing that way. And they will never beat anybody else playing that way.”
While Francesa may be overreacting a bit after one loss for the Knicks, he also may have some valid points when it comes to the big picture for this Knicks team.
Bringing in the likes of Karl-Anthony Towns and Mikal Bridges this past offseason only for Jalen Brunson to take 27 shot attempts in a playoff game does seem like a recipe that is destined to fail, whether that be against the Pistons or somewhere down the road this postseason.
As Francesa alluded to, some of this falls on Towns, who took his final shot attempt of the game with five minutes left in the third quarter. But some of it also falls on Thibodeau for failing to get a perennial All-Star like Towns some easy looks down the stretch.
Truthfully, Knicks fans should be happy that they are heading to Detroit in a 1-1 series tie, considering they needed a 21-0 run in the fourth quarter of Game 1 to win that game.
Now, the Knicks will head to Detroit and attempt to replicate what the Pistons did to them and steal a game in enemy territory. But clearly, Tom Thibodeau may need to take a deep look into their offensive game plan if they are going to do so.