Pistons blow 27-point lead, recover to beat Knicks 111-105

The Detroit Pistons blew a 27-point lead, but recovered to pick up a 111-105 win last night over the Knicks at The Palace of Auburn Hills.

The candidates would include point guard Jose Calderon and disappointing big man Kyle O’Quinn.

Jackson finished with 21 points, and Stanley Johnson added 22 and nine rebounds.

Kentavious Caldwell-Pope saw his 208 consecutive games played streak come to an end after suffering a groin injury in Boston on Wednesday.

Knicks: Afflalo scored 19 points in the second half, and Langston Galloway had 12 in the fourth quarter.

New York’s Lopez finished with a game-highs in points (26) and rebounds (16).

The Knicks went ahead 97-95 on a layup by Robin Lopez, but Tolliver answered with his 3-pointer, and Jackson added another to make it 101-97.

With the rise of Kristaps Porzingis and Carmelo Anthony’s healthy, bounce-back season, the Knicks are on the uptick. Afflalo converted a three-point play and added a technical free throw moments later to cut Detroit’s lead to 86-81. The over/under total for the game has been set at 203.5 points.

New York’s bad half came to a fitting conclusion after Anthony made a free throw with 4 seconds left. Anthony Tolliver made a late-clock triple on the next possession to retake the lead for the hosts, but that was just prelude to two game-icing shots from point guard Reggie Jackson. Jackson fired in another one from the left wing after Lopez’s dunk and effectively killed New York’s comeback.

Three quick observations from Thursday night’s 111-105 win over the New York Knicks… “I got my email from (GM) Jeff (Bower) will all the discussions that have gone on and there was no mention of Brooklyn and no mention of Jennings”, he said….

“There’s no explanation for that”, Knicks coach Derek Fisher said. The Knicks complete their pre-All-Star Game break schedule with three home games, starting with Memphis on Friday. While these numbers are encouraging, they will be meaningless if the Pistons don’t bring the effort and intensity that was lacking in the first quarter and for several other stretches in last night’s loss to the Celtics. The Knicks won the first meeting 108-96 on December 29.

NY has also dropped five in a row on the road but owns a 15-10 mark ATS away from home.