DETROIT — The Detroit Pistons experienced how much havoc the New York Knicks’ Jalen Brunson can cause for an opposing team.
The back-to-back All-NBA Second Team guard was the driving force behind Detroit’s loss to the Knicks in the postseason last year, averaging 31.5 points and 8.2 assists in the six-game series.
But when Brunson returned to Detroit for the first time since the playoffs on Monday, he was met with an overwhelming defensive presence.
The Pistons forced Brunson into a season-high six turnovers and he finished as a box plus/minus -18 in the [Knicks’ 31-point defeat to Detroit](https://www.mlive.com/pistons/2026/01/pistons-dominate-knicks-in-first-meeting-since-playoff-series.html). Brunson would lead New York with 25 points, but took 21 shots to get there.
After the game, Pistons guard Cade Cunningham — fresh off a 29-point, 13-assist performance — was asked by reporters if he felt sympathy for Brunson going up against Detroit’s vaunted defense and didn’t offer any.
“No. No, I don’t,” Cunningham said with a chuckle.
“I mean, it’s a blessing to have so many high-level defenders on our team that we can give guys like that a lot of different looks. I mean, it’s part of it. (Brunson) knows what it is. When you’re the number one threat as far as on the scouting report, the team’s gonna throw everything they can at you. And we just happen to have a lot of guys to be able to throw at you, and they’re really good at it.”
Ausar Thompson was the head of the attack against Brunson, a matchup that the third-year forward has been studying since their meeting in the playoffs last year.
His tape as a primary defender against Brunson is something Thompson revisits time and again. The moment to get some redemption — even if just in the regular season — brought plenty of anticipation.
Thompson rose to the challenge and made things difficult for Brunson and, crucially, didn’t let him get to the foul line much at all.
In last year’s playoff series, Brunson shot an average of nine free throws per game. He only took three free throws in the game on Monday.
“Jalen Brunson is one of our best scorers in this league. His craftiness, his deceptiveness, he’s going to test your discipline. But I thought Ausar did a great job defending him without fouling and making him earn everything,” Pistons coach J.B. Bickerstaff said. “For him to get 25 points on 21 shots that says a lot about the job that our guys did on him. And only three free throw attempts. That means we were executing and playing with discipline. That’s where Ausar is at his best.”
Thompson wasn’t alone in taking on Brunson. Ron Holland and Javonte Green had some opportunities to try and make life difficult for Brunson off the bench.
All three forced Brunson into turnovers with Thompson stealing the ball off him twice, Green doing so once and Holland drawing an offensive foul from him.
“(Detroit’s) physicality on ball is great on their part,” Brunson said postgame. “But with me and the turnovers I had, not a lot is going to happen offensively. That’s going to be in our future.”
Doing all that while only seeing Brunson draw three fouls the entire night — Brunson averages 5.5 drawn fouls per game — was one of Detroit’s more impressive showings of discipline for the season.
The Pistons never want to shy away from their style of physicality. Being physical and giving one of the top scorers in the league a hard time is something Detroit will be aiming to replicate all season long as they remain the top team in the Eastern Conference.