3 AND EASY
Donte nails team-record 11 treys to help Knicks rout lowly Pistons
Donte DiVincenzo added a Knicks singlegame record to his eventual single-season record. And the Pistons coach seemed salty about it.
The sharpshooting guard set the franchise mark with 11 3-pointers, finishing with a career-high 40 points in a 124-99 laugher victory over the Pistons.
In his postgame presser, Monty Williams, the embattled Detroit coach, cut off a question about DiVincenzo’s hot hand, even hinting that the Knicks went too far to ensure the record was set. DiVincenzo took seven treys in the fourth quarter with the victory already in hand.
“I don’t care about their team at all. I couldn’t care less,” Williams said after the Pistons lost their 15th straight game to the Knicks. “Those guys, the way they got those 3s — I don’t want to be a part of that story.” Josh Hart had the perfect response.
“If he didn’t want to be a part of that story, he should’ve told his guys to defend better,” the Knicks’ forward said. “What else is there to say? We got a guy that’s hot, we’re going to try to find the guy that’s hot.
“It’s common-sense basketball. He’s a head coach in the league so I think he has the
IQ to know if someone is hot, you’re going to go to him. So they’re going to be a part of that story regardless.” Indeed, the Knicks fed DiVincenzo, who took 20 treys and beat the previous franchise singlegame record shared by Evan Fournier and J.R. Smith. Driven by an anxious home crowd, DiVincenzo’s final conversion with 3:16 remaining over former teammate Malachi Flynn followed three misses.
“The crowd was speeding me up,” he said. “That emotion where you get like a sliver of space, and the crowd, as soon as you catch the ball, you can hear the crowd.
“Really I’ve said this, it’s the best fans in the league in that moment it’s a dream of like, ‘Slow down, take your time, and shoot the ball.’ ”
Told about Williams’ comment, DiVincenzo took the high road.
“All I can say is I have the utmost respect for them, and if they felt that way, that’s a conversation to be had off camera,” he said.
DiVincenzo, who knocked down 11 of his 20 3-point attempts in 41 minutes, also put a huge dent in his pursuit of Fournier’s singleseason
Knicks record of 241. He’s now just eight treys from claiming the record with 11 games remaining. Barring an injury, it’s in the bag.
And so was Monday’s game. It was over before tipoff.
The Knicks are a real NBA team, fighting for a playoff position with a stout defense. The Pistons are unserious and fielded a team Monday as if only concerned with maximum draft lottery balls.
They cobbled together a lineup that might have fallen in the G-League semis. Detroit’s starters included Tosan Evbuomwan, an undrafted Princeton man who played in 11 career games before Monday. Another starter, James Wiseman, is probably the biggest draft bust of the last five or six years, maybe longer.
Cade Cunningham, the Pistons best player, didn’t play. Buddy Boeheim, the son of the Syracuse coach, did. Predictably, the Knicks stormed out to a 29-8 lead in the first quarter and never looked back. DiVincenzo put on that shooting clinic, getting repeated open looks until the Pistons realized they should probably guard the 3-point line.
Jalen Brunson added 28 points, slicing up Detroit’s overwhelmed defenders. Hart notched his sixth triple-double since January, grabbing 14 boards with 10 assists and 11 points.
It was the Villanova show. And the Pistons (12-60), losers of seven straight, were a no-show. They shot just 38.6 percent and gave up 46 points in the paint — in addition to 19 Knicks pointers, mostly from DiVincenzo.