New York Knicks Team Report - March 28

(Basketball News) - The New York Knicks’ playoff push took a step backwards on Saturday, as they were dismantled 100-85 at the hands of the Detroit Pistons at the Palace of Auburn Hills.

DerMarr Johnson collected 17 points and seven boards for the Knicks, who fell for just the third time in eight games. New York remains in seventh place in the East, but now only one game ahead of the idle Celtics.

The Knicks were again without forwards Tim Thomas (groin) and Anfernee Hardaway (groin), while guard Allan Houston also sat out the game to rest his sore knee.

Both Thomas and Hardaway should return on Monday against the Portland Trail Blazers, but Houston could be lost for a while. Houston, who has missed five of the last six games and a career-high 24 this season, hinted for the first time that he may have played his final game of the season for the Knicks because of his ailing knee.

New York has won four of five and five of its last seven at home and is 21-17 inside Madison Square Garden this season.

The Knicks lost the Blazers earlier in the year and have dropped four straight and five of the last six matchups in the series. Portland, though, has lost six of its last 10 in the Big Apple. .