Knicks' Mikal Bridges, OG Anunoby must step up defensively in playoffs

The Knicks finished the regular season an abysmal 1-11 in games against the Celtics, Cavs and Pistons.

Maybe you don’t think Friday’s loss should count toward that record because both teams rested key players -- reasonable people can disagree on that.

But there’s not much room to debate one aspect of the Knicks’ play against Boston, Cleveland, and Detroit: their wings have been underwhelming.

Young Pistons star Cade Cunningham averaged 30.8 points, 8.3 assists and five rebounds in four games against the Knicks this year. He hit 49-of-87 shots (56 percent) and went 13-for-25 from three in those games, amassing 33 assists against 10 turnovers.

Who will guard Cunningham in the series?

If you asked Tom Thibodeau, he’d probably (correctly) say the Knicks will guard Cunningham as a team -- but they will need OG Anunoby and/or Mikal Bridges to play stellar individual defense against Detroit’s lead guard.

If the Knicks get past the Pistons (no easy task), they’ll probably have to deal with Jayson Tatum and the Celtics in the second round. It’s worth noting that Tatum averaged 33.5 points on 53 percent shooting (48 percent on threes) against New York this season.

The numbers from Cunningham and Tatum are jarring.

To be fair, both Bridges and Anunoby have strong offensive numbers against Detroit, and any evaluation of the two wings shouldn’t ignore their strong play during Jalen Brunson’s recent four-week absence (Anunoby, in particular, was playing at a very high level on both sides of the ball).

But the Knicks didn’t spend immense capital on Bridges and Anunoby for their offense.

They acquired both players to defend at a high level and supplement the offense around Brunson and Karl-Anthony Towns.

The defense hasn’t been there often enough against the Pistons and Celtics -- the same is true of the Cavs, but New York would have to get through Detroit and Boston to face off again against the Cavs. 

Right now, that seems highly unlikely.

The Knicks are disjointed on both ends of the floor -- they left the Garden on Friday demoralized after blowing a 23-point lead to the Cavs’ B-team. After Sunday’s regular season finale, New York will have a week or so to figure things out before Game 1 against Detroit. 

If the Knicks can get on the same page next week and somehow get past the Pistons and Celtics in the postseason, no one will remember these regular-season struggles. 

But if the opposite happens -- if the Knicks get embarrassed against Detroit and/or Boston in the postseason -- you can be sure there will be some hard offseason conversations about the future of the franchise.