Knicks need to take a shot at getting Karl-Anthony Towns more involved in offense
Boston Celtics center Al Horford blocks Knicks center Karl-Anthony Towns during Game 5 of the Eastern Conference Semifinals on Wednesday in Boston on May 14. Credit: TNS/Stuart Cahill
Where is Karl-Anthony Towns? Where is the 7-footer whose firepower the Knicks so coveted that they tore apart their roster this past offseason to trade for him? Why was one of the best long-distance shooting big men in the NBA a no-show Wednesday when the Knicks needed him most?
The Knicks could have closed out their Eastern Conference semifinal series with a win in Game 5 Wednesday but instead were steamrolled, 127-102, by a Boston team that two nights earlier lost its best player, Jayson Tatum, for the season.
Although there’s plenty of blame to go around for the Knicks' blowout loss, the fact that Towns looked lost in the offense has to be one of the team’s most immediate concerns as they head into another possible close-out game Friday night at Madison Square Garden.
Towns missed six of his first nine shots and got into early foul trouble, before waking up in the second half when, perhaps not so coincidentally, Jalen Brunson was on the bench in foul trouble and the game was out of reach. Towns finished with a misleading 19 points and the Knicks were outscored by 20 points with him on the floor.
The biggest disappointment in Towns’ games against the Celtics has been his outside shooting. Towns has made just two three-pointers the entire series, going 2-for-13 from deep. Compare that to the first round, when he was 12-for-25 (48%) from downtown against Detroit. Or the regular season when he hit 42% of his shots from beyond the arc.
Part of the problem is the way the Celtics have put Jrue Holiday, their 6-4 All-NBA defender, on Towns, which has thrown off his rhythm and spacing, and 7-footer Luke Kornet has been brought in to double Towns when he gets close to the basket.
But the second part of the problem is the Knicks' game plan hasn’t done much to open up things for Towns on the perimeter. Instead, he has been asked to operate as more of a traditional center, which doesn’t seem to be making Towns all that happy.
“I haven’t really been out there [beyond the arc] really. Haven’t had the chance to shoot,” he said after Game 5. “We’ve just been trying to do our game plan, and I’m just trying to execute at the highest level. So I’m trying to do most of my damage inside and do whatever my team asks of me.”
Towns’ unique offensive skill set has long made up for his deficiencies on defense. The Knicks know that it’s up to them to take advantage of it.
“I think we can run actions that get him open more,” Josh Hart said. “We’re running a lot of ball-screen actions. And they’re in a drop [coverage], but we can figure out ways to get him going, whether it’s transition or flares or quick screens.
“We have to figure out ways to help him,” he said late Wednesday night. “Obviously, he’s a hell of a shooter. But if he was a guard, we’d be in a different situation, because he’d have the ball in his hands and be able to create [for himself]. We’ve got to help him get in positions for that. And I think from the top down, we’re not doing that.”
Brunson agreed that they have to find a way for Towns to be more aggressive.
“I need to trust everyone out there and knowing who to attack and when to set the table,” Brunson said. “I think the biggest part of that is knowing how they are defending. If they are going to put a small guy on him, and then they put a bigger guy on him — him being aggressive gives us a big advantage.”
The Knicks have worked to find ways to get Towns going after a tough game in the past. After Towns scored just 10 points and went 0-for-2 from deep in the Knicks' Game 2 loss to Detroit, the Knicks got Towns going early in Games 3 and 4 and he finished with 31 and 27 points, respectively.
That’s why it was so hard to see Towns get outplayed by Kornet, a former Knick who came off the bench and had seven blocks for the Celtics.
The Knicks thought enough of Towns that they reconfigured their roster to get him. Now, it’s up to all of them to show why they did and push the team to the next round.
Barbara Barker is an award-winning columnist and features writer in the sports department at Newsday. She has covered sports in New York for more than 20 years.
