On Tuesday, Karl-Anthony Towns dismissed his quiet offensive night. All that mattered, he said then, was the Knicks prevailed.
“It’s not about the individual performances, it’s about this team finding a way to put up a win on the board,” Towns said. “I think that’s what’s special.”
Two nights later, he regained his form.
Though it wasn’t Towns the distributor, as it has been since the Knicks made a tweak to their offense during the opening-round series against the Hawks, he was pretty effective nonetheless.
With the Cavaliers looking to take away Jalen Brunson, others emerged in the orange and blue’s one-sided 109-93 Game 2 beatdown at the Garden.
Towns was terrific, notching 18 points on 7-for-12 shooting, 13 rebounds and a plus-18 rating in 36 strong minutes.
He hit three 3-pointers, equaling his most in these playoffs.
It was a very different Towns from the series opener, when he was limited to 13 points on 6-for-14 shooting along with seven turnovers. He was aggressive, made quick decisions and scored in a variety of ways — from beyond the arc and in the interior.
At times, he overpowered Cavaliers big men Evan Mobley and Jarrett Allen. On other occasions, he shot over them.
The performance continued Towns’ strong postseason. It has also shown his ability to adjust, from scorer to distributor back to scorer again.
“Just seeing where the game goes,” said Towns, who also had a major role in holding Mobley scoreless after halftime. “Last game, I felt was a game for us to kind of download a lot of information. Today, I just wanted to be aggressive — like I always say, playmaking, getting looks at the basket. It wasn’t even about scoring, it was about putting pressure on the defense, and I just found myself in good positions.”
[Notigroup Newsroom in collaboration with other media outlets, with information from the following sources]
