DETROIT >> Isaiah Stewart could no longer take the embarrassment. At the 10:52 mark of the second quarter, coach J.B. Bickerstaff received a technical foul due to the mounting frustration, as the Detroit Pistons trailed the New York Knicks by 26 points (41-15).

As Knicks guard Miles McBride stepped to the foul line to capitalize on Bickerstaff’s technical, Stewart orchestrated a huddle with his teammates to galvanize them. Stewart pleaded with his team to fight back, pick up their intensity, and try their hardest to get back into the game amid an early blowout.

“Come on, pick it up. Let’s fight,” Stewart said. “They were throwing blows and having a great game. Obviously, they were hitting a lot of shots, but the message was to pick it up.”

Stewart believes his teammates responded well to his pep talk. The Pistons put together their best quarter of the game, scoring 33 points while shooting 66.7% from the field. Unfortunately, their improved play wasn’t enough to overcome an early beatdown by the Knicks, leading to a 128-98 blowout loss at Little Caesars Arena, their 16th consecutive defeat to the Knicks.

“For us, all of this stuff is, again, things that we continue to learn, and sometimes you have to get your (expletive) kicked in order to learn the hard way,” Bickerstaff said.

Cade Cunningham, who scored 22 points in the loss, said the Pistons weren’t locked in enough on the game plan and credited their blowout to the first unit’s inadequate play. However, the same issues that have resulted in a one-win start to the 2024-25 season were displayed during the first quarter: turnovers and inefficient offensive execution.

Detroit recorded seven turnovers during the period, with the starting lineup accounting for five. At one point, the Pistons registered four giveaways in six possessions. They ended the game with 22 and conceded 30 points to New York.

The inability to take care of the ball played a significant role in their appalling offensive outing. They ended the first quarter shooting 6-of-21 from the field and entered the second frame trailing the Knicks 39-13, setting an unpleasant tone for the rest of the game.

“Turnovers — they made us pay on all of them,” Cunningham said. “(We) allowed them to be too free with their offense. If they’re going to be moving the ball like that, we should at least foul them or put them in the bonus or something. If they’re moving around too freely, and we just weren’t physical enough. The good thing is, we have two games coming up, so we get to respond.”

Bickerstaff concurred with Cunningham’s assessment. However, he also attributed the Pistons’ dreadful performance to a lack of maturity and the respect level New York had despite their sub .500 record. Bickerstaff noted that the Knicks were fully aware of the Pistons’ competitiveness through their first five games, which also featured the team taking each representative in last season’s Eastern Conference Finals — the Indiana Pacers and Boston Celtics — down to the wire during their respective contests.

“The message to the guys was, ‘Because we’ve been so competitive in these games, people are showing you a different level of respect, so they’re going to bring their A-game to start games,’” Bickerstaff said.

“The Knicks are obviously a really good basketball team, but when you earn their respect, they’re not just going to turn it on and try to figure it out late in the game. They’re coming out to match that energy we’ve been playing with, that competitiveness we’ve been playing with. …That’s what you’re aiming for in this league — your opponent’s respect. Lesson learned for us, and we’ll take it, and we’ll build from it, and we’ll get better.”

After a successful outing against the Philadelphia 76ers two nights prior, the Pistons were believed to have made prominent strides in their ongoing development. Unfortunately, an embarrassing performance against the Knicks appeared to have placed Detroit back to square one.

Although humiliated, the Pistons plan to apply the lessons learned against the Knicks in an attempt to bounce back against the Brooklyn Nets on Sunday, which is the lone positive that can come from a mortified night.

“You have to watch the film and learn from the mistakes,” Stewart said. “We have two games coming up. We can’t dwell on this loss; apply those lessons to the next game.”