Pistons 120, Knicks 103: Scenes from Dennis Smith Jr.’s first 30-piece

Another double-digit loss? No problem. At least not when your newly-acquired point guard ignites for a career-high 31 points on 15 shots.

Yeah, Dennis Smith Jr. really had it going on tonight. He was cooking right from the opening tip, and gave a little bit of everything (minus making his free throws consistently, but oh well). The Knicks went down by almost 20 after the first quarter and fought back to tie it in the third quarter, but ultimately just couldn’t keep it going down the stretch and lost, 120-103.

Smith really did give a little bit of everything tonight. Definitely a game to give fans some confidence going forward that he could possibly be an answer for this team at point guard. There were highlights:

There were some assists:

He shot 40 percent from deep (2-5):

Oh, and he tackled the shit out of Blake Griffin:

(That actually earned him a flagrant 1 and wasn’t particularly smart to do but... eh, fuck it, it was fun.)

So, yeah, hell of a game for the newest young Knick. Final stat line was 31 points on 9-15 shooting (2-5 from 3, 11-19 from the line), eight assists, two rebounds and two steals.

DSJ and Mitchell Robinson are probably the two biggest reasons to watch this team at this point, and while DeAndre Jordan got a lot more minutes than Mitch (29 for DJ versus 15 for Mitch, probably because DSJ is more comfortable with DJ at this stage), Mitch was once again the star of the show at the center position. This sequence was Mitchdiculous:

Mitch had 11 points, six rebounds, three blocks and only two fouls in those 15 minutes. The guy’s just pure energy out there.

Honestly, other than those two, not too much of a reason to watch this one. Kevin Knox struggled a bit, as did Allonzo Trier. Lance Thomas played 13 minutes. OK, I guess DeAndre Jordan had some pretty sick dunks, too:

Pretty cool.

Call up the dudes at KnicksFanTV and talk about the dawning of the DSJ Era: 657-383-1509.

Miranda has your recap in a little bit.