Cameron Payne, once ‘hated’ by his Knicks teammates, comes up big in Game 1 vs. Pistons

NEW YORK — Jalen Brunson reduce the strain.

Not lengthy after Cameron Payne signed with the New York Knicks final summer time, the staff gathered for a pickup run at its observe facility. This was Payne’s first time seeing any of the Knicks since a playoff battle towards them a few months earlier.

He confirmed up “not scared or nervous or anything,” he mentioned. However he additionally knew what was, till this second, unstated.

“I just played y’all. I just got into it with y’all,” he recalled in a dialog with The Athletic. “It was a little bit of awkwardness.”

Payne wasn’t public enemy No. 1 as a member of the Philadelphia 76ers, however for six video games throughout final season’s first spherical, a bout New York ultimately received, he pestered the Knicks. He was Brunson’s private mosquito. So, as he received prepared for the July scrimmage, Brunson approached to introduce himself.

The captain caught out his hand and declared the quiet half out loud.

“I f—ing hated you,” Brunson deadpanned.

Payne laughed. Ice damaged. Brunson continued.

“But I know you’re gonna bring it,” he mentioned. “So, I like you with us.”

At present, Brunson should like Payne greater than ever.

On Saturday, the 2 mixed for the best four-and-a-half minutes of the Knicks’ season, a 21-0 run in the course of the fourth quarter of their first playoff match as teammates. The throttling carried New York to a 123-112 victory and a 1-0 first-round collection lead over the Detroit Pistons.

The Knicks, the favorites over the upstart Pistons, trailed 98-90 with a little bit greater than 9 minutes remaining in regulation. That’s when the purpose guards caught hearth.

Payne sunk an and-1. Brunson nailed a 3-pointer. Payne dropped in a protracted ball of his personal to tie it at 98, receiving a move on the precise wing from Josh Hart, spinning his shoulders to the aspect and flinging up his at all times uncommon jumper, an elbow-straining one that appears like if the Salt Bae man hooped.

Because the ball graced the online, Pistons coach J.B. Bickerstaff signaled for a timeout, a second Payne might not even keep in mind.

When Payne is on a heater, he can black out. Who can assume whereas doused in lighter fluid?

“My mind goes blank,” he mentioned.

He and Brunson alternated buckets. Brunson hit a floater to offer the Knicks a 100-98 lead. One other 3 from Payne adopted.

The duo mixed to attain 17 consecutive factors — 9 for Payne and eight for Brunson — till Hart laid in a few finger rolls to increase the run to 21 and the Knicks’ result in 111-98 with lower than 5 minutes to go.

Payne completed the night time with 14 factors, 11 within the fourth quarter, in quarter-hour off the bench.

One sport into his Knicks postseason profession and one 12 months after New Yorkers cursed his title, Payne has tallied his first playoff second at Madison Sq. Backyard.

“On the opposing side last year, it was tough,” Payne mentioned. “It was loud as s— in here. But being on the flip side of it, it felt good.”

This was greater than only a scoring binge. From the onset of the fourth quarter, when he subbed again into the sport, Payne lent the Knicks life.

Detroit had overcome a halftime deficit to seize an eight-point lead. As Pistons guard Dennis Schröder tried to inbound the ball, a should-have-been simple move to start the interval, Payne leapt up and down as if he had been doing leaping jacks. The identical methods that peeved the Knicks final spring invigorated them Saturday. Detroit couldn’t throw the ball in and succumbed to a five-second violation; Knicks heart Karl-Anthony Cities scored on the following possession.

Payne chased sharpshooter Malik Beasley, who led the NBA in 3-point makes in the course of the common season, round screens du jour all through the ultimate interval. Twenty-one factors in four-and-a-half minutes began with stops. Throughout that stretch, the Pistons clanked all 10 pictures and turned it over twice. The Knicks pushed the tempo.

“Two point guards together injected some speed to the game,” head coach Tom Thibodeau mentioned.

Payne will race, whether or not the clock is operating or paused.

After tying the sport at 98, he galloped to the Knicks’ bench, possessed in a continuing screech, and seemed up into the stands, the place his mom was sitting — nay, standing. The Payne household doesn’t recline, not for huddles in the course of the fourth quarters of tie video games and never within the crowd.

The 2 shouted to one another, waving their arms in jubilation.

“Cam always has the energy, regardless of who we’re playing, where we’re playing, what time we’re playing,” Brunson mentioned. “He has the energy when we walk into the arena, and it shows. Even if the ball is not bouncing the way he wants to, he still has the energy.”

The Payne means is persistence.

A former lottery decide, he discovered himself out of the NBA six years in the past, enjoying professionally in China with none promise of returning to the league. However he latched on with the Phoenix Suns in 2020 and hasn’t let go since.

He survives on vibes.

As a rookie, he didn’t respect his total score within the online game, NBA 2K16. A 72 grade ranked 242nd within the NBA. So Payne solved the issue himself. He created a brand new participant, named the brand new participant Cameron Payne, moved all of the sliders as much as 99 (the very best score) and performed a season that technically had two Cam Paynes, refusing to acknowledge the lesser avatar.

“I gotta give myself some love,” Payne insisted via a smile.

He’s a hustler. A pinball would get dizzy reenacting his pregame routine. At occasions this season, he fell out of favor with Thibodeau. One night time, he’d drop 18 factors throughout a 4-minute, 17-second span towards the Minnesota Timberwolves. On the subsequent, spotty shot choice may harm the Knicks.

Payne is a streaky shooter, however a chilly stretch doesn’t deter him from throwing them up.

Questions arose heading into this collection about whether or not he could be a part of the playoff rotation, contemplating Thibodeau may have sliced his group of regulars to seven or eight. He went with 9 guys.

Payne was the final of these 9 to enter Recreation 1. By his requirements, he was affected person, ready a powerful seven seconds after subbing in to launch his first 3-pointer of the night time. It went in, as did all these pictures that went up when it mattered most.

“It feels good. Everybody’s on my side this time,” Payne mentioned. “I ain’t the most hated right now. It’s fun.”

(Prime photograph: Sarah Stier/Getty Photographs)