The New York Knicks returned to winning ways by beating the Portland Trail Blazers 123-114 at the Moda Center on Sunday. This was a close game early on in the fourth quarter, but the Knicks were able to pull away late to get a much-needed win. Notably, one man who wasn’t part of that late surge was Karl-Anthony Towns.
Knicks head coach Mike Brown subbed Towns out with over nine minutes remaining in the fourth, and he kept the big man on the bench the rest of the way. It was an interesting decision, and Brown was asked about it in his postgame press conference.
“We had strung a lot of stops together,” Brown said. “We were getting out and going, and I just wanted to [stick with the group]. And I will do this. If I think a group is rolling, I’ll keep a group as long as it doesn’t really impact somebody’s minutes drastically. And so that group was rolling, and I just kept them out there because of it.”
The Trail Blazers led 94-92 with 9:24 left when Brown took Towns out of the game for Mitchell Robinson. As he mentioned, the Knicks did indeed manage to string together a fair few stops after that, as the hosts went just 5-15 from the field the rest of the quarter.
Robinson, of course, is a far better defender than Towns. He is nowhere near as good on the offensive end, but the Knicks’ offense was rolling as well with him. They shot an excellent 11-18 from the field after that substitution. We have seen instances where benching a star player down the stretch backfires, but that wasn’t the case here.
All that said, Towns did have a good game. The 30-year-0ld put up 20 points (9-13 FG), 11 rebounds, three assists, and two blocks in 28 minutes.
Towns appeared to suffer a leg injury late in the second quarter here. He left for the locker room just before halftime, but was able to start the second half. You wondered if the injury played a part in Brown’s benching of Towns in the fourth, but it didn’t.
While this was a solid showing by Towns, this season certainly hasn’t been his best. He is averaging 21.2 points, 11.4 rebounds, 3.0 assists, 0.8 steals, and 0.7 blocks per game while shooting 47.1% from the field and 35.5% from beyond the arc. That’s the lowest field goal percentage of Towns’ career and the second-lowest three-point percentage. The scoring average, meanwhile, is the third-lowest.
Towns has rightly been viewed as one of the best offensive centers in the NBA in recent years, but he’s not playing like one now. You’d expected him to fare better under Brown, who is a more offensive-minded coach than Tom Thibodeau.
It’s hard to imagine the Knicks winning the championship if Towns doesn’t start playing better. They might come out of this weak Eastern Conference, but they would stand little chance against the heavyweights in the West in the NBA Finals.
The Knicks improved to 25-14 with this win against the Trail Blazers and are second in the East. They take on the Sacramento Kings, Brown’s former team, next at the Golden 1 Center on Wednesday at 10 PM ET.
