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Knicks' Mike Brown credits Karl-Anthony Towns' mid-game 'shift in mindset' for win over Pistons
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- Knicks' Mike Brown credits Karl-Anthony Towns' mid-game 'shift in mindset' for win over Pistons
Through much of the first half of Tuesday night's contest against the Detroit Pistons, the Knicks found themselves still buried in the slump from the season's first three games: shoddy defense, missed baskets, and sluggish transitions. At one point in the first half, they fell 13 points behind.
Then came the third. New York outscored Detroit 60-47 in the final 24 minutes of play, holding its opponents to just 13 points in the third and eventually running away with a 111-97 lead by the time the clock wound down.
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The effort was largely spearheaded by Karl-Anthony Towns. The 30-year-old center completely turned it around after the break, finishing with his fourth double-double in four games so far this season. His 57 percent shooting from the field was second on the team, only to Andre Drummond(5-for-7).
But it wasn't until a near-brawl with Pistons starting center Paul Reedmidway through the third that Towns really stepped up; he finished the first half a minus-14.
Reed, who scored nearly one-third of Detroit's 50 first-half points (16) and finished with a team-leading 22 points and five offensive rebounds, got tangled with Towns as teammate Duncan Robinsoncut New York's lead to 10 midway through the third quarter. The two instantly became heated, but the referees stepped in before things could escalate and dealt Reed a Flagrant 1.
Then came the shift. After making his two free throws from the flagrant — his only two free throws of the night — Towns exploded for 16 of his 27 total points and tacked on eight of his 20 rebounds, recording his fifth 20-20 as a Knick.
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After the game, head coach Mike Browncommended Towns for the way he rebounded and said he had a very frank conversation with the center at halftime.
"KAT's a grown man. He's obviously a perennial All-Star. I just told him the truth: 'KAT, the guy is killing us on the glass, and when he gets a rebound, he's putting it back. Anything he gets in the paint, he's putting it back. If he catches on the perimeter, guard him,'" Brown said. "And he did those things. I've got to take my hat off to KAT because I thought his shift in his mindset was really big for us in the second half."
The clash between Towns and Reed ignited a fire inside the entire Knicks roster, serving as a catalyst for a more aggressive effort on both ends of the court.
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It was just the boost New York needed to clinch their first win of the season after seemingly falling victim to a championship hangover.
"[Reed] played great in the first half. I think we were able to not let him loose on the offensive boards. He was really impacting the game," Jalen Brunsonsaid after the game. "For [KAT] to step up as he did throughout the game was something that we needed."
Towns, however, credited the turnaround to the entire team.
"I thought we did a better job picking up our intensity and our physicality, and we just executed at a high level," he said. "... We've just got to worry about the controllables, which is us playing our best, executing at a high level, and bringing that physicality to the game."
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He added that with one win under its belt, the team has to shift all of its energy toward a second one rather than dwelling on Tuesday's success.
"Gotta get the next one — that's the only thing on the mind," he said. "... All year, it's going to be us improving, going through the ups and downs of the season. We just got to stay steady, keep believing in each other, keep pushing each other to another level."
