The biggest Knicks killer this year is back.
Cade Cunningham, after missing 11 games due to a collapsed left lung, returned for the Pistons in their clash against the Bucks on Wednesday night in Detroit.
Given the unique nature of the injury, there was a chance it could have had a major impact on the Knicks — both in their chances to catch the Pistons for the No. 1 seed in the East, and if he was out longer, a potentially weakened Pistons team in the postseason.
But Detroit went 8-3 without him, refusing to open the door to the Knicks in the standings and clinching the No. 1 seed in the process.
And Cunningham will have three games to get himself back into rhythm ahead of the postseason. If the Knicks finish as the No. 3 seed, he’d have two playoff rounds, too, before the possibility of an Eastern Conference finals showdown between the two teams.
The Pistons bludgeoned the Knicks in all three regular-season matchups this year and Cunningham was in the middle of it.
He averaged 29.8 points, 11.0 assists and 5.3 rebounds across the three games on 51.6 percent shooting from the field and 50 percent shooting from 3-point range.
The Knicks need just one win across their final three regular-season games to surpass last year’s tally of 51.
Coach Mike Brown claimed ignorance.
“On my grandson, I didn’t know how many wins the Knicks had last year,” Brown said after practice Wednesday. “I might’ve seen it or whatever, I know they finished in second or third last year, one of the two. But I don’t know how many wins they had, so it didn’t matter to me, I just wanted to try to get the best seeding we could going into the playoffs. But even more important than that, I wanted to feel like we’re playing a certain way going into the playoffs and that we had a really good feel and direction while having true belief in what we’re doing.”
Jaylen Brown (left Achilles tendinitis), Derrick White (right knee contusion), Sam Hauser (lower back spasm) and Neemias Queta (right toe sprain) are all questionable for the Celtics.
It is the first leg of a back-to-back for them.
Just Tyler Kolek (right oblique strain) is listed on the Knicks injury report. He is questionable.
[Notigroup Newsroom in collaboration with other media outlets, with information from the following sources]
