Alex Speers

completely obliterated the New York Knicks for the third consecutive time this season, winning 126-111 in Madison Square Garden.

In their final meeting of the season, Cade Cunningham put up 42-8-13, which included going 5-11 from three.

This was a game that was affected by those suspensions coming out of the Pistons-Hornets brawl, so Detroit did this without having both all-star Jalen Dern and Isaiah Stewart

But when you got B-Ball Paul, you're in good hands.

And Paul Reed picked up the slack for the missing big men and scored 18-7 with three blocks in the game.

That loss drops the Knicks into a tie with the Cavs in the standings.

But those two teams will play very soon, playing next Tuesday in Cleveland.

In Cleveland's first game back, they played the Brooklyn Nets.

They won handily.

Brooklyn is one of the teams that's tanking.

And just to wrap up the tanking news this week, Sham Sharania reporting on Thursday that Commissioner Adam Silver informed the league's 30 general managers that the NBA plans to make anti-tanking rule changes for next season.

All right.

That one I find weird.

That just seems rude to the Pacers.

That's just a mean thing for the Pacers.

Lottery odds allocated based on two-year records.

Lottery extended to include all playing teams.

And then the idea of flattening the odds for all lottery teams.

Now these are just ideas that are being discussed.

So none of these are final.