The Knicks ended the third quarter with a commanding 14-point lead over the lowly Pistons on Friday night, but a 15-7 run to open the final period by Detroit put New York in an unexpected battle to avoid an upset.
The Knicks lead shriveled to just four with 1:42 left, but New York survived to avoid becoming the first team to lose at home to the Pistons this season.
While New York survived, it still continued a troubling trend of poor play in fourth quarters that have the team among the worst in the NBA over the final 12 minutes of regulation.
As noted by The Strickland, this year’s Knicks are currently dead last in the league in fourth quarter field goal percentage (39.1 percent) and 3-point percentage (just 23.5 percent), and are second-to-last in total scoring and net rating (-42).
These inefficiencies were on display during the team’s collapse to the Hawks, and were certainly prevalent again on Friday night. For a team coached by Tom Thibodeau, who prides himself on having the best conditioned squad on the floor that can still have plenty of wind in its sails down the stretch, this is a trend that needs to be corrected.
Follow Ryan Chichester on Twitter: @ryanchichester1
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