AUBURN HILLS, Mich. _ Tobias Harris probably isn't in any danger of returning to the bench.
Especially not after his huge evening led the Detroit Pistons to a 112-92 victory over the New York Knicks Saturday at the Palace.
One game after Pistons coach Stan Van Gundy decided to get Harris' scoring back into the starting lineup, Harris scored 28 points on 11-for-21 shooting, and the Pistons (33-33) moved to .500 for the first time since December.
Harris added seven rebounds, five assists and two blocked shots. The Pistons are now a half-game behind the Indiana Pacers for sixth place in the Eastern Conference playoff chase.
Andre Drummond was dominant with 24 points, 15 rebounds and three steals.
Reggie Jackson had another solid game at the Palace with 19 points and eight assists.
These are the games the Pistons must win if they are to make the playoffs for a second straight season.
The Knicks (26-40) are already making vacation plans _ consider star forward Carmelo Anthony only took nine shots.
Second-year forward Kristaps Porzingis led the Knicks in shots (7-for-16) and scored 18 points, but he had no interest in guarding Harris.
And the Pistons kept calling Harris' number in the first half when he scored 23 points.
The Pistons went for the knockout punch early when they used a 26-8 run to take a 35-17 lead at the 1:05 mark of the first quarter.
After missing their first two 3-point attempts, the Pistons knocked down five straight with Jackson raining two of them.
Aron Baynes' 18-footer completed the run.
But the Pistons yielded two Chasson Randle 3-pointers _ the last one a half-court buzzer beater _ that cut the deficit to 12 at 35-23 going into the second quarter.
The Pistons tried to pull away in the second quarter, but allowed the Knicks to shoot 63.2 percent.
The lead was cut to 44-38, but the Pistons were able to reassert control and take a 66-53 lead at halftime.
Van Gundy gave Harris his second straight start after he got the nod in Thursday night's victory over the Cleveland Cavaliers.
He gave complex reasoning for returning to Harris.
"The other night, it was as much a matchup thing as anything and then we won the game," Van Gundy said before the game. "That's why we came back tonight. Not a lot of in-depth analysis there, to be quite honest."
