Tom Thibodeau knows what the Knicks biggest problem is, but likely won’t fix it

I should make this clear — I am a Pistons fan. You know, the team that the Knicks are playing. The team that made the Knicks all sad for their loss. I give this disclaimer because I am writing this story about the Knicks’ play coming up short with glee in my heart and sincere hope that it happens again and again and again.

With that out of the way… whoo boy. That was a game last night, huh? The Pistons have Cade Cunningham and a defense. The Knicks have All-NBA players, a generally well-regarded coach, a front office that hasn’t eaten its own sock on accident in a while, and what one would expect to be a top starting five in the entire league.

Both games of this series, the Pistons have jumped out to a somewhat sizable lead before watching it slowly melt in the final minutes. In the first game, the Knicks came all the way back. Yesterday, they weren’t quite so lucky.

Tom Thibodeau knows the Knicks need to rebound better, but will he fix it?

So, after the game, Tom Thibodeau was asked what he thought went wrong, and he was blunt about the team's rebounding struggles. "Rebounding was problematic the whole night, so that's probably the difference in the game," he said.

The rebounding difference was indeed sizable. The Pistons’ had 48 total to the Knicks’ 34. The Knicks lost the offensive rebounding battle 12-7. And the Knicks had no starters with double-digit rebounds. The Pistons had three. Mitchell Robinson and Josh Hart did what they could, but it wasn’t enough. And this is with the Pistons missing Isaiah Stewart, who averages 10 rebounds per 36 minutes.

What do the Knicks do now? Two big lineups? More Precious Achiuwa? Is Thibs going to move away from the starting five he’s ridden all year to start making adjustments to rotations three games into a series with a lower seed?

Well, if you want to be negative about it, it might be necessary. While they limited Cade’s assists, that was largely aided by a poor shooting night from his teammates. The Pistons shot 22.2 percent from 3-point, making six total, and still pulled out a win. The Pistons brought the game into the mud, played the way they wanted to, and defined the win on their end. Again, the Pistons have their blueprint. How do you fight back?

But on the other hand, going back through their season series, the rebounding numbers between the teams were quite close. There was one lopsided advantage for the Pistons in a Knicks loss, but the Knicks were missing KAT. There was also a rebounding advantage for the Knicks in another game. A large Knicks win, worth mentioning. It could just be pressing the “Do Better” button. KAT grabs a few more boards, play with a little more energy, that kind of thing.

And in all likelihood, that is the direction the Knicks will go. They probably can. They have way more talent and experience than the Pistons do. They also may not want to give schemes away before the later rounds, if they’re thinking that way. One loss at home will probably not be enough to spook Thibs into making any heavy changes. But we’ll see!