Karl-Anthony Towns' swagger returns as he leads Knicks over Wizards
Karl-Anthony Towns of the New York Knicks puts up a shot for a basket and draws a foul during the fourth quarter against the Washington Wizards at Madison Square Garden on Monday. Credit: Jim McIsaac
With the Knicks looking like a team on the back end of its first back-to-back set of the season, Karl-Anthony Towns got the ball near the foul line in the second quarter and threw a shoulder into the chest of Wizards 7-footer Alex Sarr, shoving him under the rim. Towns quickly and emphatically dunked on him and stared him down.
It was a spark on a night in need of one, and Towns gave the Knicks more than just emotion, contributing 33 points, 13 rebounds and five assists in a 119-102 win over Washington on Monday night at Madison Square Garden.
The win was the second in two nights for the Knicks (4-3) and eased the memory of the three-game road losing streak that preceded it.
“KAT was a monster,” coach Mike Brown said. “He was a monster on the glass. He was really good defensively. He was a monster inside, outside.
“He’s starting to feel and find his rhythm in what we’re trying to do. But I’m telling you, there’s still a lot of room there to grow, not just for him but for us to learn him, starting with me, and us to continue learning the parts of what we’re trying to do offensively. He was a monster.”
The Knicks struggled early to shake the Wizards (1-6) and trailed 30-22 after the first quarter. They were down one with the clock ticking down on the first half when Towns took a pass from Josh Hart as he trailed the play heading upcourt. He pump-faked, drew contact and drained a three-pointer with a foul, and the four-point play gave the Knicks a 57-54 halftime lead.
“Just saw opportunities to get some good shots up and be aggressive,” Towns said. “I just wanted to take advantage of the opportunity. [Jalen Brunson] requires a lot of attention. Take what the defense gives us, and tonight I saw that I had an opportunity.”
It turned into a blowout in the third quarter. Much of the damage came from Hart, who shook off his long list of injuries and early-season shooting struggles to drain back-to-back three-point field goals. He scored 10 of his 12 points in the third quarter as the Knicks extended the lead to 27 before sending the starters and main rotation subs to the bench with just over three minutes to play.
This time the spark came from their play. On Sunday night, it came from Mikal Bridges’ voice, which might be more unexpected.
Bridges spent his first season with the Knicks in the background, trying to find his place in a group that already had achieved success without him. At the same time, he was trying to live up to the cost the franchise paid to bring him to the Garden — five first-round picks and a pick swap, assets that the team had been hoarding.
So early in Sunday’s game, it might have surprised even his teammates when he and Brunson raced back to try to defend a fast break and saw the initial shot that missed become an easy putback as Towns, OG Anunoby and Mitchell Robinson never made it past midcourt. As the Knicks called time, Bridges shouted at his teammates, a discussion that continued on the bench, where he implored them to hustle back on defense.
The boxscore will show Bridges with 10 points and nine assists on Sunday, but maybe the contribution that didn’t show up there was lending his voice to a team in need of it.
“I’ve seen him do it before,” said Hart, who, like Brunson, has known Bridges since their days at Villanova. “I think he’s extremely comfortable in himself, the system, the situation. Obviously, when you have that comfort level, you feel confident in kind of speaking up, saying what you see.”
“I don’t really know the dynamics of last year, so it’s hard for me to compare it to last year,” Brown said before Monday’s game. “Just, in general, everybody needs to hold everybody accountable. And there may be times where somebody comes at me and I can’t take it personal.
“I’ve got to just be in the moment and understand how to handle it then. So we need players and coaches to hold each other accountable, and none of us should take it personal when it happens. So if it happens, it’s great. I’m all for it.”
Notes & quotes: Robinson sat out Monday on the second night of a back-to-back, with the team calling it left ankle injury management . . . Brunson had 16 points and nine assists . . . Jordan Clarkson has come off the bench to score 30 points in 39:05 in the last two games.
Steve Popper covers the Knicks for Newsday. He has spent nearly three decades covering the Knicks and the NBA, along with just about every sports team in the New York metropolitan area.
