These are the kinds of nights that can snap a cold spell in half — the kind that jolt a slumping star out of a month-long haze and remind everyone why he’s supposed to matter. The start of this NBA season has been something close to a nightmare for Karl-Anthony Towns, maybe the worst shooting stretch of his basketball life at any level.
But maybe it was all a dream, and in Brooklyn, inside Barclays Center, it felt like someone finally shook him awake. And now — at least the Knicks hope — Towns is wide-awake. They’re going to need him sooner rather than later, because he’s the swing piece in a Knicks offense that can reach heights this franchise has never touched if every cog fires.
Towns is the second-biggest cog. And for the first 15 games of the Mike Brown era, he hadn’t quite found where he fit in the machine.
In Brooklyn, he finally looked like he belonged.
The All-Star big man, mired in a month-long freeze, cracked out of it and dominated the Nets in the Knicks’ 113-100 victory on Monday night — and he did it without leaning on the crutch of the three-ball, the skill that separates him from most other seven-footers to play the game.
Towns finished with a game-high 37 points on 14-of-20 shooting from the field and shot three-of-four from deep. It was a breakout performance for a star scorer in desperate need of reprieve.
Which is why games like Monday night matter, and why the Knicks need to use these so-called gimme games to continue to put their All-Star big man in motion. The Knicks hunted Towns from what felt like the opening tip, and he rewarded that trust with aggressive decision-making, putting his head down to get to the basket instead of settling for threes.
And as expected, attacking the rim opened up the three-point shot, though his shot selection in past games hasn’t been a sticking point. Towns entered Monday night’s matchup in Brooklyn averaging a hair under six attempts from downtown a game. Yet of those six attempts, 2.5 of them were considered wide-open, according to data from the NBA’s stats page, with a defender six or more feet away from a contest. Towns shot just 23.7% on wide-open threes this season, a stark departure from the near 47% clip he shot on equally contested looks last season.
Towns shot two-of-six from downtown in Saturday’s loss in Orlando and a combined 2-of-13 from deep against the Dallas Mavericks and Miami Heat.
“I thought we took some good shots. We just didn’t make them. It’s unfortunate. I can only speak for myself, I thought I took some shots that were good, that felt good. It just didn’t go in,” Towns said after the loss to the Magic. “The numbers will always number out, the averages average out. I’m confident in my shot. I’m going to keep shooting, keep being aggressive. Keep finding ways to impact winning and hopefully help us win games.”
He was 31.85 from deep on the season entering Monday’s matchup in Brooklyn.
“He got some good looks. I know for sure last game, but I think most of the year he’s got some pretty good looks, and he’s a great shooter,” Brown said ahead of tipoff against the Nets. “It’ll balance out and if he continues to get the looks that he’s gotten so far, he’s gotta keep letting that thing fly because he’s a great shooter.”
Hopefully this is a turning point in the latest chapter for the Knicks’ All-Star big man. He’s a career 40% three-point shooter and the only center in NBA history to ever win the Three-Point Contest at All-Star Weekend.
The Knicks are going to need him, especially with OG Anunoby and Landry Shamet shelved due to injury. Because if the Knicks can’t string together consistent stops, their next best bet is to out-gun each opponent with the firepower at their disposal.
And if Towns finally found his shot, it unlocks a layer on offense this team hasn’t been able to tap into all year. The layer where its two-best players can win games for them explicitly using the skill sets that have served them best.
