New York Knicks center Karl-Anthony Towns was fittingly unsurprised by Jalen Brunson's Game 1 heroics in the 123-112 win over the Detroit Pistons. The final scoreline does not do this clash justice. For a while, it looked like the East's No. 3 seed was about a drop of a crucial Game 1 at home to a young Pistons squad. Fortunately, the Knicks' star point guard, center, and Cameron Payne spurred an electric 21-0 run in the fourth quarter. This rally ultimately helped New York pull away.

KAT ended up finishing with a phenomenal stat line, putting up 23 points, 11 rebounds, five assists, four steals, and two blocks. Nevertheless, the player of the game was Jalen Brunson, who suffered an injury scare during the third quarter. Fortunately, the two-time All-Star regrouped and led the Knicks with 34 points and eight assists. Towns was unsurprised in the postgame interview with Alan Hahn about his point guard's performance.

It was a vintage Cardiac Knicks affair on Saturday

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It's just one game. It's just one game. But this win felt especially good for a team that had many questions heading into Saturday night. How was Tom Thibodeau going to manage minutes? Is Jalen Brunson 100%? Who is going to guard Cade Cunningham for the majority of the game? These were some of the questions heading into this series that New York had to answer. While many experts predicted the Knicks would win this series, New York could not take the Pistons lightly, especially after losing three straight to them in the regular season.

There is a lot to clean up going into Game 2. Specifically, defensive effort and discipline could have been more consistent overall. There were too many blown coverages, as shooters like Tim Hardaway Jr. and Malik Beasley both put up 19 points or more. Those are two players that can be contained if they are run off the three-point line. In addition, New York lost the rebounding battle, which is not surprising but still disappointing for this group.

However, it feels great to win this game, and hopefully, this is the worst performance the Knicks put forth in this series. Mikal Bridges needs to be a lot better going forward if he plans on playing major minutes during this playoff run. This is not the moment to play guys because of their roles or contracts. This is the moment to feed the hot hands, and on the bench tonight it was Cam Payne. Nevertheless, this series is far from over, and if the Knicks don't want to see Malik Beasley hit his shimmy and antagonize them going forward, they best be locked in over these next few games.