The Detroit Pistons thrived in a playoff-style atmosphere on Thursday. Their last two regular-season games could have postseason implications as well.Detroit faces the Milwaukee Bucks in back-to-back games on Friday and Sunday.The first of those games will be held in Detroit, with the rematch in Milwaukee.If the Pistons (44-36) win both contests, they would be the No. 5 seed in the Eastern Conference playoffs and the Bucks would drop to No. 6. If Milwaukee (46-34) wins at least one of those matchups, it will retain the No. 5 spot and Detroit would be the sixth seed.Both Central Division teams won Thursday night, but the Pistons had the tougher assignment. They defeated the visiting Knicks, who have the third-best record in the East, 115-106. Detroit, which had lost its previous two games at home, outscored New York 59-44 in the second half.”That’s Pistons basketball,” Detroit coach J.B. Bickerstaff said. “I thought in the past couple of games we’ve been in a position where we’ve been trying to trade punches, but that’s not who we are. That’s not what makes us unique. The second half, we played our style. We brought the fight to our type of fight. Defensively is where it always starts for us.”On offense, it often starts with Cade Cunningham, and that was the case once again. Cunningham scored 20 of his 36 points in the second half. Jalen Duren provided some inside punch by making all nine of his field-goal attempts while logging 18 points and 13 rebounds.Detroit also got a boost from Ronald Holland II. The rookie contributed 13 points off the bench, including back-to-back layups in the fourth quarter.”It was a playoff atmosphere first of all,” Holland said. “We know that’s a potential team we could probably end up seeing. I think we’ve been doing a good job of handling adversity all year. We’ve been growing as a team, as a collective and as a unit.”