The Knicks reached the halfway mark at a low point in this rollercoaster season.

Behind Malik Beasley’s 3-pointers and Cade Cunningham’s dominant offense, the Pistons escaped with another win at MSG, 124-119, on Monday night, exposing 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 double-teamed their tormentor of the night – Cunningham – which led to two passes around the perimeter to Beasley for an open three-pointer and a four-point Pistons lead.

Then, with six seconds left and the Pistons leading by two points, a similar play unfolded with the Knicks doubling Cunningham. That left Beasley open again for the Dagger 3-pointer and the final basket of the game.

“Defensively we have to get better,” Josh Hart said before pausing as if not to reveal his emotions. “Yeah, we just have to get better.”

The Knicks (26-15) are still on track to win 52 games, but it feels worse as they have lost five of their last seven games.

“We lose games, I think we shouldn’t lose,” Hart said. “So we have to find out. At this point we are halfway through the season. We can’t change anything about the first half, we have to concentrate on the second half. But if we want to be the team we want to be at the end of the year, we have to start correcting those.”

The Knicks tried to contain 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 scored 36 points in just 32 minutes.

“He had a great game,” Tom Thibodeau said. “That’s the way he plays and he puts a lot of stress on you and everyone has to stick together. Beasley had a hot hand and we have to be there to 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.

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These aren’t the same old Pistons, and the struggling Knicks, who were riding 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 were outnumbered.

Karl-Anthony Towns, meanwhile, played a total of 43 minutes when Thibodeau decided against using a backup center. Towns was also hampered by a thumb injury he suffered while attempting a layup in the first half, where his hand hit the backboard. He placed a black bandage around his right thumb, often winced in pain and badly missed some shots while scoring 26 points with 12 rebounds.

The Pistons (21-19), an embarrassment under Monty Williams last season, were trending upward, entering Monday with nine wins in their last 11 games. It’s a product of offseason development and improvement, with JB Bickerstaff taking over as coach and adding veteran sharpshooter Trajan Langdon to complement Cunningham.

Detroit implemented these improvements Monday night. The Knicks have gone the other direction.

“There are still a lot of things we can do better and we need to focus on,” Thibodeau said.