Karl-Anthony Towns’ strong NBA Finals has hit a roadblock.
Suddenly, he’s not nearly as involved in the offense.
In his last five quarters, Towns has attempted 11 field goals and tallied two assists, and all of a sudden the Knicks’ path to their first championship in 53 years isn’t quite as clear.
Towns was mostly a non-factor Monday night, as the Knicks’ franchise-record, 13-game playoff win streak came to a close in a 115-111 setback to the Spurs at the Garden.
“It was the way we played and the things that we were doing offensively,” coach Mike Brown said. “We were just coming down and just basically playing ‘drag.’ We’d get the first screen, and then we literally just stood and watched.
“There was no movement. Like, sometimes KAT has to flash to the elbow. Sometimes he’s got to post up. … They are junking the game up by just putting [Victor Wembanyama] in one of the two corners. So if they junk the game up, I can call a play. But sometimes you’re going to have to just move and cut and pass the ball quicker and drive the ball quicker, because it’s almost a zone that they are in to a certain degree, and we didn’t do a good job of attacking it.”
Towns was held to 11 points on 4-of-10 shooting, after attempting just a single shot in the Game 2 victory in San Antonio.
For so much of this postseason, the Knicks were getting Towns’ best, as a scorer and playmaker. He was terrific in Game 1, tallying 18 points, 12 rebounds and four assists. And he was on his way to a monster Game 2, before foul trouble. Since, he has had trouble getting back into a groove.
Brown, though, thinks Towns’ lack of involvement of late is a symptom of the Knicks getting stagnant and relying too much on their individual talent. It wasn’t a Towns problem — it was an everyone problem.
“We just wanted to stand and watch one guy dribble a ton. And then when the ball got passed, there were no quick decisions by the guy receiving the basketball,” Brown said. “So we have actions we can get into that we didn’t do a good job of getting into, first of all, but it’s OK because you’re not going to be able to run plays all the time, especially with how physical they are playing defensively. Sometimes you’ve just got to go by guys.
“But you’ve got to be smart. You have to take care of the basketball. You have to space right. You have to move the ball. You have to move bodies. We’ve done that quite a bit, and we didn’t do a good job of it tonight.”