Stewart is dealing with right knee issue
After nearly 19 hard-fought minutes Saturday, Isaiah Stewart, not moving at 100%, motioned to the Detroit Pistons ’ sidelines to take him out of the game. The Pistons were beating the New York Knicks in Game 1 of the NBA Playoffs 98-92 at the time of Stew’s exit. In less than five minutes of game action, it was suddenly 111-98 Knicks, and the Pistons had let a chance to beat the Knicks in Madison Square Garden slip away.
The backup big man sat out the final two games of the regular season, including a key matchup against the Bucks to determine playoff seeding, to rest an inflamed right knee. Ian Begley reported after the game that Stewart had imaging done on his knee after the game. It’s unclear if he will be available for Game 2 or any of the remaining games in the series.
To add frightening insult to literal injury, Omari Sankofa in the Detroit Free Press indicated, via JB Bickerstaff, that Stewart might be dealing with more than just inflammation.
“Bickerstaff didn’t confirm if that’s the injury that’s still ailing him, but implied that the issue might be deeper than just inflammation,” Sankofa writes. “ ‘Uh, there’s a lot going on there,’ Bickerstaff said about the injury.”
Stewart has been one of the league’s most impactful paint defenders this season. He allowed opponents to shoot just 46% at the rim this season, second in the NBA to Chet Holmgren for any player defender at least 4 rim attempts per game.
He is key to Detroit’s defense, and I’m not sure if the Pistons have a real shot against the Knicks if Stewart is forced to miss time. Exacerbating the issues was a poor defensive showing from Jalen Duren. The 21-year-old big man played his age against the Knicks. He was a team-low minus-20 in 24 minutes of action, scoring 7 points and securing six rebounds. He was regularly late on rotations and fouled four times. Stewart, for comparison, was a team-high plus-8.
Paul Reed has proven capable as a scorer and serviceable big man off the bench, but the absence of Stewart would leave a Belle Isle-sized hole in the Pistons’ defense. Perimeter defenders Ausar Thompson and Ron Holland, a second-year player and a rookie, respectively, also didn’t perform well in their first dose of playoff action. If the Pistons are incapable of staying in front of New York’s dynamic guards without fouling, the frontline of Duren and Reed shouldn’t be expected to put up much resistance.
Stewart is officially listed as questionable for Game 2, but at this point, I am more worried about Games 3 and 4.