Reggie Bullock returned to his former trampled grounds to perform his best performance of the season.
The Knicks ’three-dimensional wing lived up to its turnout Saturday night as it added a 22-point high in the season in the 125-81 victory over the Pistons in Detroit.
“Reggie was fantastic,” coach Tom Thibodeau said.
Bullock, who had established himself as a starter and a legitimate three-point threat to the Pistons from 2015 to 2019, fired 8-for-12 from the field and 6-for-10 from beyond the arc. He teamed up with Julius Randle to score 28 of the Knicks ’first 30 points as they put an end to their emphatically three-game losing streak.
“Obviously, I played [in Detroit] for four years, but give credit to my teammates, praise Jules, “Bullock said.” It definitely involved me. I tried to space it out, set up screens, get people out of it, and just space.
“He has been doing a great job all year looking for shooters, finding perimeter players to be able to put the ball in the hole. I went out today and I was shot, so I kept shooting. “
Thibodeau said before the match that he only planned to use Norvel Pelle in a “situational” way after the center signed a ten-day contract Friday night. But fourth-quarter garbage time turned out to be the right time for Pelle, who had three minutes of adventure.
The big man who blocked the shots, signed for depth after Mitchell Robinson broke his foot on March 27, appeared to dislocate his right index finger as he climbed an alley late in the fourth quarter.
But he reintroduced it before throwing a free kick and then recording two blocks on the next defensive possession. Pelle added three rebounds.
“Our scouts really liked it,” Thibodeau said before the match.
Killian Hayes, the No. 7 Pistons general pick who had been on the Knicks ’radar before the November draft, returned from a labral hip tear that had kept him out since Jan. 4. He played 20 minutes, but was left without a score, with three assists and five rebounds.
In the run-up to the draft, the Knicks originally had Hayes as their maximum guard on their board, outside of LaMelo Ball, before learning of his pre-existing hip problem, Marc Berman of The Post reported. But the Knicks landed Obi Toppin with No. 8 pick after the Pistons passed him off to draft Hayes with the seventh pick.
Toppin scored eight points Saturday after throwing himself on the bench in Friday’s loss.
“I really like how he’s been playing,” Thibodeau said.
Derrick Rose required attention after bleeding over his left eye in a drive to the edge in the early second quarter. But he stayed in the game and finished with seven points in 21 minutes. … The Knicks added all 15 players from their roster to the game.