The Detroit Pistons stunned the New York Knicks 124-119 at Madison Square Garden on Monday, thanks, in large part, to Malik Beasley. Beasley drilled two huge threes at the end of the contest to get the Pistons the win and revealed postgame that he was motivated to hit them by a trash-talking Knicks fan.
“Shoutout to the Knicks fan,” Beasley said. “He said I hit four 3s in the first quarter and hadn’t done s*** since. I was like, ‘Watch this.’ Got the ball, hit the 3, cussed him out then I got the second one.”
That Knicks fan learned his lesson the hard way. He poked the bear and his team paid the price for it.
As the fan pointed out, Beasley had gone cold in this game after a hot start. The 28-year-old hit four of his first five threes but just one of his next six. The thing about good shooters, though, is that they don’t tend to be in a funk for too long, and Beasley sure wasn’t. He drilled those threes in cold-blooded fashion and blew kisses to the crowd afterward.
Beasley appeared to be pointing at someone in the crowd after the first shot and that might well be in the fan in question here. That individual might think twice before opening his mouth next time around.
That last three-pointer gave Beasley 22 points (7-13 FG) on the night to go with two rebounds, one assist, and one steal. He helped the Pistons register their 10th win in the last 12 games and they are now 21-19 on the season.
Malik Beasley Explained Why He Struggled With The Lakers
There was one other fanbase apart from the Knicks that was dismayed by Beasley’s heroics. That, of course, would be the Los Angeles Lakers fanbase, as he had struggled during his stint with the team in 2023. Fans wondered why he couldn’t play this well for their team and Beasley had explained what went wrong during his Lakers stint.
“You know, the challenges that I faced was off-court stuff. It wasn’t more like getting in trouble. It was more of the past, things that happened in my life, you know, that, you know, caused me to not play at my best.”
“Also, LA is like home for me, you know, I’m from Atlanta, but you know, my wife is from LA. And so it was a lot going on, you know, I wasn’t the player I wanted to be. And I hold myself accountable, you know, I wasn’t putting in the extra work as I am now and it showed.”
“And it had nothing to do with the system or anything.”
Kudos to Beasley for holding himself accountable. He played rather poorly for the Lakers, averaging 11.1 points on 39.2% shooting from the field. He recognizes he could have put in more work then, the way he is doing now.
Also, it’s good that the dark days are seemingly behind Beasley now. He is playing arguably the best basketball of his career with the Pistons, averaging 16.5 points, 3.0 rebounds, 1.9 assists, 0.9 steals, and 0.1 blocks per game in 2024-25 while shooting 40.4% from beyond the arc.
Beasley has been a big reason why the Pistons have exceeded expectations this season and they could well end up making the playoffs. He and they will be in action next against the Indiana Pacers at Little Caesars Arena on Thursday at 7 PM ET.
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