The defensive performance by Josh Smith on Carmelo Anthony in Wednesday’s Pistons win over the Knicks was matched Thursday by Stan Van Gundy on anybody critical of Smith’s game.

“I couldn’t care less what the crowd thinks about shot selection,” Van Gundy said after practice when a question arose about how the gasp audible in the arena as Smith prepared to take a fourth-quarter jump shot with a once-safe lead dwindling might affect Smith.

Smith shot 2 of 17, missing five point-blank shots. It was contagious, too. Van Gundy counted an astounding 15 misses among the 29 shots the Pistons took within 1 foot of the rim. It didn’t look like a defining issue until the Knicks started making everything they launched in the last six minutes, when they crept within two points after trailing by 16 to start the fourth quarter.

“Nobody’s talking about the fact that one of the top three scorers in the league went 5 for (21), only got to the free-throw line four times and (Smith) got 10 rebounds and he had five assists. Look, he had a lot to do with us winning the game, but if you’re not capable of analyzing the game beyond 2 for 17, OK. But there are a lot of positive things that went on last night in regard to Josh.”

Smith had a sequence early in the game where he took a runner from the baseline that missed, then followed up with two offensive rebounds that resulted in two missed layups.

“I think I was rushing it a little bit,” he admitted. “Just speeding my game up when I really don’t have to. I think when I play under control at both ends of the floor, I’m at my best. But when you see yourself miss a couple of layups, you being to rush a little bit and I let that get the best of me last night.”

The Pistons weren’t thrilled they caused themselves so much anxiety, but had Smith carried his offensive frustration to the opposite end of the floor they almost surely would be still in search of their first win. He didn’t do it by himself – Caron Butler also took away any easy points for a guy who just recently got to 20,000 career points – but Smith was entrusted by Van Gundy to neutralize Anthony and did it was well as he could have imaged.

“You exert a lot of energy on that end and I couldn’t get it going offensively,” Smith said, “but I think we did a good job, a team effort, on him and individually taking on the challenge.

“I’m just excited and happy we got the win, our first win of the year. I’m not really concerned about my individual stats right now. I’m just concerned with getting wins and being able to try to step up to the challenge each and every night and guarding some of the best players in this league.”

Van Gundy has made clear to Smith since his May hiring that he expected him to be more than just a prominent player but a leader. Smith embraced the responsibility. He spent his summer preparing to play more at power forward, focused on adding strength, and reported to Auburn Hills after Labor Day to spend a month in pre-camp workouts with his teammates. He’s been an enthusiastically vocal supporter of Van Gundy’s regime, practically bristling at references to last season.

“We’re a different team now,” he said when asked if all the wins that evaporated into losses late in games a year ago played on their minds as New York inched closer Wednesday. “We have different leadership.”

Van Gundy admitted some of the shine of an otherwise superb performance was taken off by the limping finish, but underscored the positives – things that essentially meshed with his blueprint for this team’s success.

“it’s a little deflating to finish like that, it is,” he said. “And it’s too bad, but what it puts into perspective is that it’s a 48-minute game. So over 48 minutes, you’ve got to have more points than the other team. And I’ll take my chances. Build 16-, 18-point leads every night and we’ll go from there. I’ll be we’ll be pretty well off. Even if we do what we did last night, I would imagine that our percentage of games that we win when we go up 18 would be pretty good.”

They might not have come out of the game with the same confidence had they wound up winning by 20, but Smith wasn’t quibbling.

“I think we just needed a win,” he said. “Just to see that all the hard work we’ve been doing this off-season is finally paying off.”