The Knicks didn’t exploit their biggest mismatch until it was too late.
The Detroit Pistons entered Thursday’s matchup at Madison Square Garden handicapped with both centers Jalen Duren and Isaiah Stewart serving suspensions for their brawl against the Charlotte Hornets before the All-Star break.
Yet the Knicks didn’t hunt Knicks freeze-out Karl-Anthony Towns vs. center-less Pistons, their six-time All-Star center, with any frequency until the third quarter, a bothersome trend plaguing a New York team that fell to an 0-3 record with an average margin of defeat of 28 points against the East’s No. 1 seed on Thursday.
Towns finished with 21 points, 11 rebounds and four assists on the night but took just three shots for two points in the first half as the shorthanded Pistons built a 10-point halftime lead.
“I mean, our offense is our offense. It’s been that way all year,” said the Knicks’ star, who is enduring the worst season of his career under new Knicks head coach Mike Brown. “So we have our system and we’re gonna — regardless of who’s in the game or not in the game — we run the system that we have implemented for our team to the best of our abilities.”
Towns suggested the team ran more of its offense through him in the third quarter, when he scored 12 points on 3-of-5 shooting from the field and 5-of-5 shooting from the foul line.
“Just trying to make a play. Be aggressive and play-make. Got a chance to get some shots up, and I wanted to capitalize on those opportunities,” he said. “I’m happy I was able to hopefully give us a spark, try to start the third quarter on a strong note. What I definitely wanted to, if I could control anything in the third, was get us off to a quick start. I’m happy I was able to do that and find chances to impose my will in the game.”
Knicks head coach Mike Brown has long maintained Towns’ role on offense is under construction along with the team’s new-look offense. But the big man has regressed beyond recognition: Towns is averaging 19.8 points, his first season under 20 points since his rookie year. His 46.6% shooting from the field is a career-worst, and his 35.1% shooting clip from deep is the second-worst clip of his career, also since his rookie year.
“He’s comfortable,” said Brown. “We’re just continuing to try to do different things to help free him up, and we’ll continue to search to find different things to try to free him up throughout the rest of the year.”
Ahead of tipoff, however, Brown said he didn’t see exploiting the paint as a necessity with Duren and Stewart out of the Pistons‘ lineup.
“[Attacking the paint] is always an emphasis for us — regardless of whether those guys are playing or not,” said Brown. “You want to touch the paint, you want to offensive rebound. Whether we’re touching the paint on the dribble drive or cuts, or rolls, that’s what we want to do. So hopefully we’ll be able to get it done tonight.”
