The Pistons were also playing without their co-leading scorer and most consistent backcourt force, Rodney Stuckey, who was out with a sore left big toe.
So after a 13-0 run late in the second quarter that helped the Knicks to a 12-point halftime lead at Madison Square Garden, they were presented with an option. They could give the Pistons a chance by regressing to plodding, stylized rugby, or they could cruise while playing something resembling entertaining basketball.
They chose the more aesthetically pleasing course, winning in a rout by 101-79, bouncing back immediately after having a five-game winning streak snapped on Friday night against the Toronto Raptors.
The Knicks have won six of seven games since Mike D'Antoni stepped down as coach and Mike Woodson replaced him.
It is rare for a Knicks game to yield only good outcomes for the team, and Saturday's good vibes were seemingly dashed when Amar'e Stoudemire left in the third quarter with a sore lower back. Stoudemire, whose back problems knocked him out of the playoffs last season and prevented him from playing in the off-season, had his playing status listed as questionable after he went back to the locker room.
But Stoudemire and his teammates, including Tyson Chandler and Carmelo Anthony, played down the injury after the game.
"It's just got a little tight, that's all," Stoudemire said. "We just took precautionary measures. Just came in the back and got treatment."
Jeremy Lin also left the game with an injury in the third quarter. He had a sore left knee and returned to the bench. He was available but was not needed with the outcome in hand. Lin said his knee was "good to go," and said the team was taking a precaution because of "overuse."
No Knick scored more than 17 points, but Stoudemire, Lin, Chandler, Anthony and J. R. Smith all finished in double figures. Anchoring a defense that held the Pistons to 37 percent shooting, Chandler tied a season high by snagging 17 rebounds.
The Knicks overcame eight turnovers to build a 4-point advantage after the first quarter on the strength of good shooting and solid defense. The Pistons, their offense lacking without Stuckey, scored 10 of their 17 first-quarter points off those turnovers.
Both teams flew to New York after losses Friday, and the sloppy play reflected that, with the ball bouncing off feet, fingers and faces. Sequences of back-to-back turnovers were common occurrences in the first half.
"But I am concerned, from a basketball standpoint, the turnovers," Woodson said. "It's just ridiculous, I think. We're just too nonchalant with the basketball and not reading it."
The Knicks said before the game that a magnetic resonance imaging test had confirmed inflammation in the right knee of Jared Jeffries, and that he would miss about two weeks.
"It gives other guys an opportunity to step up, like Josh," Woodson said, referring to the rookie Josh Harrellson. In 12 minutes on Saturday, Harrellson (4 points, 7 rebounds) fit in well, and the team played solid defense.
A bigger test comes Monday against a lightning-quick Milwaukee Bucks backcourt that will demand pick-and-roll switches and constant harassment from the Knicks' big men.
The coaching matchup was intriguing because under different circumstances, Woodson and Lawrence Frank might have been on opposite benches. Frank was D'Antoni's first choice to become the Knicks' defensive coach last summer. When the Pistons hired Frank as their head coach, D'Antoni turned to Woodson, who had interviewed for the top coaching jobs in Detroit, Minnesota and Houston.
"I struck out three times this summer," Woodson said.
Frank avoided the topic, saying, "I'm happy where I'm at."
The Knicks were forced to evaluate where they were after the game, as Woodson had pictures of the Larry O'Brien Trophy — given to the N.B.A. champion — taped above every player's locker during the third quarter of Saturday night's game.
"I have no idea what the story is," Stoudemire said. "But I'm a visual guy, so I love to see it. So whenever you got those type of trophy posters over your locker, it gives you that visual, that you can achieve that goal, so it's great to see."
Stoudemire, whose improved play has spurred the Knicks during their recent surge, will have to remain healthy for those visual aids to have any significance.
Rebounds
Ben Wallace (0 points and 7 rebounds in 19 minutes) played what was most likely his last game at the Garden. Wallace was the anchor and Mike Woodson the architect of the defense that propelled the Pistons to the 2004 N.B.A. championship. Wallace has said that he will retire after the season. ... J. R. Smith and Iman Shumpert connected on a spectacular give-and-go alley-oop late in the fourth quarter. Shumpert said it was the first time he had executed such a play in a game situation.
Howard Beck contributed reporting.
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