Many in Manhattan have no doubt endured the humbling tradition of returning to the office after vacation. The New York Knicks joined those muddled metropolitans on Thursday night.

The Knicks got a rude welcome back from the NBA All-Star break at Madison Square Garden, falling to the Detroit Pistons by a 126-111 final in their first return to action. The Eastern Conference-pacing Pistons (41-13) secured a three-game regular season sweep of the Knicks with the win.

Point guard performers Cade Cunningham and Jalen Brunson continued to live up to their NBA All-Star billings, the former leading all men with 42 points and 13 assists to outduel a near-triple-double from the hosting captain (33 points, 8 assists, 6 rebounds).

Perhaps the New York Knicks’ All-Star contingent, which prevailed in the showcase weekend’s “Shooting Stars” competition, could’ve benefited from a few reps at the 3-Point Contest won by Damian Lillard.

Brunson opened scoring with a deep ball (part of a 9-2 run to start the game), but the Knicks went on to miss their next 16 tries with an extra point on the line.

That allowed the Pistons to upgrade a two-point advantage at the end of the first quarter to double-figures by intermission, the tally created by a 7-0 run in the last 62 seconds (doubles from Cunningham and Ausar Thompson sandwiching a Duncan Robinson three).

Having dropped the first two meetings by a combined 69 points, the Knicks ensured that the finale would at least be numerically respectable: after taking but three shots over the first 24, Karl-Anthony Towns (who missed the prior Pistons matchup) put up a one-man show at the top of the third period.

Towns briefly reversed the Knicks’ outside woes with a 3-pointer (as well as a free throw single on a Paul Reed foul) that kick-started a personal run of 10 consecutive points on the metropolitan ledgers and narrowed the gap to two.

Death from deep, however, once again came back to haunt the Knicks, as consecutive threes from Robinson re-established an eight-point advantage, one that never got down to a single possession after that.

Even as the Pistons got the lead back up to 11 by the end of the third, the Knicks (35-21) put up an emphatic momentum-seizer when Jeremy Sochan, making his Manhattan debut after his release from San Antonio, rejected a Cunningham drive.

But once Cunningham got more consistent scoring help (St. John’s alum Daniss Jenkins was 3-of-3 in front of a crowd that included his college coach and ex-Knicks boss Rick Pitino), the lead never got under 10.

Detroit has not lost to the Knicks since New York ended their resurgent season in the opening round of last year’s Eastern Conference playoff opener. The Pistons extended their lead over the third-place Knicks on the Eastern leaderboard to seven games with the win.

None of the three games featured either team at full strength: despite getting back OG Anunoby (3-of-13, including 1-of-8 from three) and showcasing their newcomers, the Knicks once again missed Miles McBride on Thursday. Meanwhile, Detroit played without All-Star Jalen Duren and Isaiah Stewart, both of whom were suspended for their roles in an on-court brouhaha with the Charlotte Hornets.

Despite those departures, the Pistons outrebounded the Knicks by six, including 7-4 on offensive boards in the fourth to keep the Knicks at bay. Long Island native Tobias Harris picked up the load with 10 rebounds (also scoring 11 points) while Tolu Smith, appearing in just his eighth NBA game, also performed respectably in relief.

The Knicks have a busy weekend ahead, as a doubleheader gets underway on Saturday at home against the Houston Rockets (8:30 p.m. ET, ABC).