The Knicks’ defense is flopping as they hit a low point with a loss to the Pistons

The Knicks hit a low point midway through this rollercoaster season.

Behind 3-pointers from Malik Beasley and dominant offense from Cade Cunningham, the Pistons escaped with another win at MSG, 124-119, on Monday night that exposed the Knicks’ flawed defense.

“Offense wasn’t the problem tonight,” Jalen Brunson said. “Defensively, we just gave them a lot of confidence.”

With about 40 seconds left, the Knicks hit their tormentor for the night — Cunningham — which led to a pair of passes around the perimeter to Beasley for an open trey and a four-point Pistons advantage.

Then, with six seconds left and a two-point Pistons lead, a similar play developed from the Knicks double by Cunningham. That left Beasley open again for the dagger 3-pointer and the final bucket of the game.

“Defensively, we’ve got to be better,” Josh Hart said before pausing as if pausing to reveal his extended emotions. “Yeah, we just have to get better.”

The Knicks (26-15) are still on a 52-game winning streak, but it feels worse as they’ve lost five of their last seven.

“We’re losing games I feel like we shouldn’t be losing,” Hart said. “So we have to figure it out. We’re halfway through the season at this point. We can’t do anything about the first half now, we have to focus on the second. But if we want to be the team we want to be at the end of the year, we must begin to correct these.”

The Knicks tried to ride Brunson in the fourth quarter, and the captain responded with 12 of his 31 points in the final nine minutes. But they couldn’t stop the Pistons down the stretch, especially Cunningham, who finished with 36 points in just 32 minutes.

“He had a great game,” Tom Thibodeau said. “That’s the way he’s played and he puts a lot of pressure on you and everyone has to be tied together. Beasley had a hot hand and we’ve got to be there on the catch.”

In other words, the Knicks didn’t rotate quickly enough defensively on passes that went from Cunningham to Tim Hardaway Jr. to Beasley on both critical possessions.

“And Beasley, who shot great all night, got two easy looks,” Brunson said.

It’s not the same old Pistons, and the struggling Knicks, who rode a 16-game winning streak against Detroit before this season, were hit with a reminder. Thibodeau’s paper-thin bench was outscored 46-13.

“We have more than enough,” Thibodeau repeated, without much evidence that his reserves had become surplus.

Karl-Anthony Towns, meanwhile, got 43 minutes when Thibodeau decided not to use a backup center. Towns was also hampered by an injured thumb suffered in the first half on a layup attempt where his hand crashed into the backboard. He put a black wrap around his right thumb, often winced in pain and badly missed a few shots while scoring 26 points with 12 rebounds.

An embarrassment last season under Monty Williams, the Pistons (21-19) have been on the rise and entered Monday with nine wins in their last 11 games. It’s a product of development and offseason upgrades, with JB Bickerstaff taking over as coach and general manager Trajan Langdon adding sharpshooting vets to complement Cunningham.

Detroit bowed out those improvements Monday night. The Knicks have gone in the other direction.

“There’s still a lot of things that we can do better that we have to lock in on,” Thibodeau said.