Game Preview: Knicks Vs Pistons, Feb. 19, 2026

In sports, marriages, and baby juggling, sometimes the third time’s a charm. After losing to them twice this season, by a combined 69 points, the very determined Knicks (35*-20) host the Detroit Pistons (40-13) at Madison Square Garden tonight. Gluttons for punishment? We think not!

Both teams are coming in hot for this potential playoff preview and their first game post-All-Star break. New York has won eight of their last ten tries, including a marvelous 49-point evisceration of the Sixers, while the Pistons have also won eight of ten. Right before the schedule break, Detroit needed just 46 second-half points to beat the respectable Raptors by 18.

We’ve tried to mentally expunge the last game between the Knicks and the Pistons (and the one before that, too). On February 6, Motown won 118-80 in Detroit, and Cade Cunningham led all scorers with 28 points. For New York—playing without Karl-Anthony Towns, we hasten to add—Jalen Brunson tallied 20.

The surging Pistons rank second in defensive rating at 109.2 and net rating at +8. They average 117.2 points per game, tenth in the league; lead everybody in steals at 10.6 and blocks at 6.3; and rank fourth in offensive rebounds at 13.1. They step to the foul line more often than 27 other teams, choosing to attack inside the arc (first in 2-pointers made) rather than outside (27th in three-point attempts).

For Bickerstaff’s boys, Cunningham averages 25.3 points and leads the team with 9.6 APG. Jalen Duren puts up 17.7 points and hauls in 10.4 boards, Duncan Robinson scores 12.3 points and shoots 40% from three, and Tobias Harris adds 13.4 points per game. Defensive pest Ausar Thompson also contributes 10.2 points and six boards.

Detroit plays bruising basketball and to beat them, your frontcourt must stand tall. We expect the newest Knick Jeremy Sochan—6’8” tall with a seven-foot wingspan—to help with that off the bench. Acquired after the Spurs released him last week, Sochan plans to make his Madison Square Garden debut this evening.

The Pistons’ likely starting five will be Cunningham, Robinson, Thompson, Harris, and Paul Reed. Fellow guitar noodlers, do you also automatically affix Smith to his name? It’s an annoying mental tic of mine, one which—

Wait! Where’s Jalen Duren? you ask. Well, the former Knick was suspended, along with Isaiah Stewart, for brawling with the Hornets. Beef Stew? More like Beef Stupid—

Wait! Duren was a Knick? you ask. That’s right, we briefly had him in our grasp. On Draft Night 2022, Duren was drafted by Charlotte, then immediately traded to New York, who dealt him to Detroit as a way to sweeten a Kemba Walker dump. In return, the Knicks got a 2025 1st-round draft pick, a conditional 2025 1st-round pick, and a trade exception. Later, those picks went to Brooklyn in the Mikal Bridges trade, and the Nets used the 19th selection of 2025 on Nolan Traoré.

So, you continue, there’s an alternate universe where the Knicks kept Duren, grooming him to replace Mitchell Robinson, and the Mikal Bridges trade never happened? Well, yes. Now shut up and let me finish this dumb preview.

Prediction

ESPN gives the Knicks a 57% chance to win. Their AI predictor might still be drunk from a long All-Star weekend—or, like us, it saw the injury report. For the Knicks, OG Anunoby is expected to play, recovering from a toenail avulsion (gross, do not Google). That means, save for Miles McBride, New York will have a full complement of players, while the Pistons will lack two important frontcourt pieces. Salivating? I should be wearing a bib.

If they contain Cade, set the pace, play consistently on both ends, and drink in the loving vibes of a raucous home crowd, our heroes should win tonight and tomorrow morning be declared Finals Favorites by all the knee-jerk reactionary jerks in the media. Lose, and we’ll endure all those same jerks saying they’re pretenders, should blow it up, go for (gag) LeBron, yadda yadda.

Forget that noise. Tonight, New York will get stellar minutes from its starters, punch-in-the-mouth defense from their newest bench players (the aforementioned Sochan and Jose “Eats for free in NYC” Alvarado), and one of their most important wins of the season. New York by four. LGK!

Game Details

Date: Thursday, February 20, 2026
Time: 7:30 PM ET
Place: Madison Square Garden, NYC
TV: MSG
Follow: @ptknicksblog and bsky

* Should be one more, but the NBA Cup Final was a figment of your imagination.