The Detroit Pistons could be without one of their best bigs.
Rim-protecting center Isaiah Stewart is listed as questionable with right knee inflammation going into Monday night’s Game 2 against the Knicks at Madison Square Garden.
Stewart did not play the final 9:06 of the Pistons’ 123-112 loss in Game 1 on Saturday — a decision head coach J.B. Bickerstaff said he made to protect the big man.
The Knicks scored the last 19 points in their game-turning 21-0 run with Stewart on the bench.
“He was phenomenal last night,” Bickerstaff said Sunday after a film session. “His effort, how he protected the rim, the energy that he brought, how his teammates fed off his energy was huge.
“When he’s not on the floor for us, we all have to bring that. We have to find a way, because we can’t just lean on him all the time or expect it just to be him. We have to play with that same ferociousness and that effort that he does.”
Stewart — who grew up in Rochester, N.Y. — underwent imaging on his leg after Saturday’s game, according to SNY. He had appeared hobbled throughout his 19 minutes off the bench.
The 6-8 center missed the last two games of the regular season with right knee inflammation. Asked Sunday if Stewart was dealing with the same issue, Bickerstaff replied, “There’s a lot going on there.”
The Pistons led, 98-90, when the Knicks’ Cameron Payne finished a lay-up and drew a foul on Stewart.
Stewart, 23, checked out of the game before Payne shot his free throw and did not return.
“It definitely hurt,” guard Malik Beasley said of Stewart’s absence. “Stew is a guy — I don’t care what anybody says — he’s here for us. He only cares about us, so to not have him out there in the fourth quarter hurt a little bit, but as a team … we have to have a next-man-up mentality.”
Stewart is one of the NBA’s top interior defenders, and his bruising presence is a major part of the Pistons’ physical identity.
With a +8 point differential, Stewart was the only Pistons player to finish with a positive plus/minus.
Starting center Jalen Duren, meanwhile, struggled in his postseason debut. Duren’s -20 point differential was the worst among all players, while his 137.5 defensive rating was significantly worse than Stewart’s 107.0.
“[The postseason] is different, but just like a regular season game, you have to be the best version of yourself,” Bickerstaff said of Duren’s performance. “I know [that] and I expect more, and I know that he’ll give us more because he has all year.”
OG ADJUSTMENT
OG Anunoby was a game-wrecker in Game 1.
Anunoby’s hounding defense against Cade Cunningham was the driving force in the high-scoring Pistons star managing only 21 points on 8-of-21 shooting.
“We’ve got to be more physical with him on the offensive end of the floor,” Bickerstaff said of Anunoby after Sunday’s film session.
“You go back and watch the film, and a lot of our screens were whiffed. If you’re gonna set a screen on a guy like that, you’ve got to put a body on him. The times that we did, we were able to create leverage and find two-on-ones or whatever it may be.”
Anunoby’s five steals led all players.
“This series, we talk about physicality, but physicality just isn’t defense,” Bickerstaff said. “There’s physicality on the offensive end of the floor, and we’ve got to up that.”
