NEW YORK -- The New York Knicks scored 119 points and shot efficiently -- 50% from the field and 40% from the 3-point stripe. They even managed to get to the line 11 more times than the Detroit Pistons.

But in the end, none of those things were enough as the Knicks fell 124-119 to the red-hot Pistons on Monday night at Madison Square Garden.

The game, which marked the halfway point of the regular season for New York, was the kind of contest the defense-first Knicks were used to winning in previous years. But they couldn't come up with stops late and gave up back-to-back shots on identical plays, both of which resulted in wide-open corner 3s from Detroit's Malik Beasley in the closing moments.

"We're losing games I feel like we shouldn't be losing," wing Josh Hart said in the locker room after the defeat. "We've got to start figuring it out. We're halfway through. There's nothing we can do about the first half now. But if we want to be the team we're trying to be at the end of the season, we need to start correcting stuff now."

Hart's comments make it seem like the third-place Knicks, at 26-15, are vastly underperforming relative to expectations. But it's actually the best mark they've had under coach Tom Thibodeau at this point in a campaign. Last season, they were 24-17. In 2022-23, they were 22-19, and in 2021-22, the Knicks were 20-21. So there's an argument to be made that this is progress.

Thibodeau himself said Monday after the loss that clear progress has been made since the team's slow start. The club caught fire in December, reeling off nine wins in a row at one point, and it has one of the league's best scoring duos in Jalen Brunson and Karl-Anthony Towns.

But on some level, that's what's noteworthy: The team's identity -- once perhaps the NBA's most physical, grind-it-out unit -- now frequently finds itself in shootouts like Monday's loss. And the Knicks, who are tied for second in offense but rank just 15th in defense, sometimes can't get enough stops to close the deal. It's an unusual problem for a Thibodeau-coached team to have.

Pistons star Cade Cunningham, who had just seven points in the first half after being saddled with foul trouble, exploded for 29 points in the second half. In the third period alone, he had 18. That was why New York aggressively sought to trap him twice in the closing moments, only for Cunningham to unload the ball to Tim Hardaway Jr., who then found an open Beasley on back-to-back possessions to close the game out.

Yes, it was just one contest, against a resurgent Pistons unit that has won 10 of 12, no less. And it was the second end of a back-to-back for the Knicks, who'd taken apart the Bucks a night earlier. But it's abundantly clear what New York needs to tighten up as it heads into its second half.

"Defensively, we've got to be better," Hart said. "We've just got to be better there."