How Karl-Anthony Towns can take on a bigger offensive role in 1st-round series for Knicks
Karl-Anthony Towns and the Knicks head to Detroit to take on the Pistons for Game 3.
After a wild comeback victory sparked by a 21-0 run late in Game 1 last Saturday, the Knicks nearly pulled off a similar feat in Game 2 before falling 100-94 to the Pistons. Jalen Brunson carried the load offensively for his squad with a game-high 37 points (12-27 FG) in 44 minutes, but his heroics weren’t enough to stop a hungry Detroit team from evening up their first-round series.
Brunson, who has taken 27 shots in each outing so far, leads the 2024-25 playoffs in scoring (35.5 PPG) and field goal attempts through two games. That’s impressive for a guy who made just four appearances for New York over the final month of the regular season because of an ankle sprain he sustained on March 6 against the Lakers.
In the five games before his ankle injury, Brunson was cooking with 30.4 points and 7.2 assists on 48.6% shooting (10.6-for-21.8 FG) from Feb. 26 to Mar. 6, scoring 30-plus three times. During that same stretch, Karl-Anthony Towns averaged 14.0 points and 12.3 rebounds on shooting splits of 37.1% FG / 20.0% 3PT / 76.5% FT in 37.8 minutes across three games.
Towns did miss some time after the All-Star break due to personal reasons, but he was a huge reason the Knicks went 9-6 in the 15 games without their captain between March 7 and April 5. KAT put up 24.9 points, 10.4 rebounds, and 3.1 assists on splits of 51.4% FG / 45.5% 3PT / 81.0% FT in 14 contests. He and the rest of his teammates know what he’s capable of, despite some struggles throughout his first campaign in New York.
Coach Tom Thibodeau has the Kia NBA Clutch Player of the Year in Brunson, but he and his staff know they have to strategize a way to get Towns more involved in the offense in this series. Of 49 qualified players in the playoffs, KAT ranks 36th in scoring (16.5 PPG) and is tied for 40th in field goal attempts (12.5). He played 33 minutes in Game 2, including the entire fourth quarter, and registered 10 points (5-11 FG, 0-2 3PT), six boards and a block. In his 19 second-half minutes, Towns was scoreless on 0-for-3 shooting and did not attempt a shot in the final frame.
The sample size is small at just two games, but the Knicks haven’t exactly been firing on all cylinders without their All-Star center-forward in a groove. Adjustments will be made for Game 3, and Thibodeau himself said that he isn’t too concerned with Towns’ lack of involvement in the latter half of the series-tying loss. “If they’re going to commit to two or three people on him, I don’t want him forcing shots,” he said on Wednesday. “But there’s things that he can do and we can do to get him a second and third look, so that’s what we have to try to do.”
One area of focus could be to draw up more quality looks from 3-point range for the 7-footer. Towns has struggled a bit from distance over the past several weeks, and it’s carried over into the postseason. In his last five outings before the playoffs, he shot just 30.8% from long distance on 2.6 attempts per game after draining 42.0% of his 4.7 attempts throughout the regular season. KAT has only made one of his five 3PA (20%) against the Pistons so far.
Brunson deserves to have the ball in his hands as the focal point of the offense, of course, but there’s a reason why they brought in Towns this offseason. New York managed only 15 assists in Monday’s loss, their lowest total for the 2024-25 season. The Knicks have made it a focus to get other guys involved in their preparation for Thursday’s matchup, and Towns should be at the top of that list.
If the Knicks can get Towns more opportunities while Brunson stays in attack mode, they’ll have a solid chance of taking back home-court advantage in Game 3 tonight (7 ET, TNT). However, another disappearing act or uneven performance could result in a 2-1 series deficit for New York.
