Karl-Anthony Towns wasn’t sure how he’d fit into Mike Brown’s up-tempo Knicks offense.
For one night, against the lowly, one-win Washington Wizards, those uncertainties vanished.
Towns delivered his most dominant performance of the young season in New York’s 119–102 win at Madison Square Garden on Monday, finishing with 33 points on 12-of-24 shooting, including 3-of-8 from deep, to go with 13 rebounds and five assists.
He punctuated the night with two vicious dunks in traffic — first lowering his shoulder into second-year forward Alex Sarr’s chest before finishing through him and flexing under the rim, then slicing baseline for another emphatic throwdown. He even capped the first half with a four-point play that gave the Knicks a three-point edge heading into the break.
Towns tallied 16 points across the first two quarters and another 14 in the fourth, slamming the door on a late Wizards rally.
It was easily the most comfortable and confident Towns has looked in Brown’s new system. Entering Monday, he averaged 18.3 points on 38% shooting from the field and 35.7% from three — well below last season’s 24.4 points on 50/40 shooting splits under Tom Thibodeau.
Yet Brown maintained patience. The coach insisted Towns’ impact would surface if he stayed aggressive, continued touching the paint, and trusted the ball would eventually come back his way.
On Monday, that patience paid off — even if the Wizards, who lack a center capable of guarding Towns’ size and skill, offered minimal resistance.
Jalen Brunson finished with 16 points and nine assists, OG Anunoby added 16 points on 7-of-13 shooting, and Jordan Clarkson provided a spark off the bench with 15 points for the second straight game. Josh Hart posted 12 points, 10 rebounds, and five assists with the second unit.
The Knicks avoided what had all the makings of a trap game — their first of the season — against a team projected to compete for ping-pong balls by year’s end.
A trap game, also known as a setup, is when a contender overlooks a struggling opponent and pays the price. On the second night of a back-to-back, fresh off six straight games against projected playoff teams, the Knicks faced one of the league’s bottom dwellers. The Wizards were one of only four teams with one or fewer wins entering Monday.
New York flirted with disaster early, leading by just three at halftime — hardly ideal for a team with championship aspirations.
Brown, however, saw it coming.
“These guys [the Wizards] are in the NBA for a reason. They’re talented and their record doesn’t speak well for them right now,” he said before tipoff. “They probably wish it was better or probably could be better and it’s not up to us to decide whether or not they’re good or bad. It’s up to us to know it’s a back-to-back, we’ve got an NBA team in front of us, let’s play how we’re capable of. And I’m a firm believer in worry about yourself. If you’re able to take care of yourself at the highest level, everything else will fall into place… So no matter who’s in front of us, we’ve gotta come to freaking play, and if we expect to be great, then we will.”
It took two quarters, but they finally did — and when it clicked, it blew the game open.
The Knicks erupted in the third quarter, outscoring Washington 41–24 and shooting 15-of-22 from the field, including 6-of-10 from three. The ball movement — a hallmark of Brown’s system — reached its peak: New York recorded 12 assists in the third quarter alone, tying for the second-most in any quarter by any team this season.
Starting center Mitchell Robinson sat out the second leg of the back-to-back as part of his load management plan for his surgically repaired left ankle. Landry Shamet started in his place, adding eight points on 3-of-8 shooting in 25 minutes while helping space the floor.
The Knicks have now rebounded from a three-game road skid with back-to-back wins at home. Up next: Julius Randle, Donte DiVincenzo, and the Minnesota Timberwolves — a matchup that could double as a reunion for Towns and a measuring stick for the Knicks, especially with superstar guard Anthony Edwards expected to miss the game with a hamstring strain.
