{"id":738896,"date":"2026-04-19T14:29:19","date_gmt":"2026-04-19T14:29:19","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/738896\/"},"modified":"2026-04-19T14:29:19","modified_gmt":"2026-04-19T14:29:19","slug":"karl-anthony-towns-put-his-stamp-on-knicks-game-1-win","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/738896\/","title":{"rendered":"Karl-Anthony Towns put his stamp on Knicks’ Game 1 win"},"content":{"rendered":"

Much was made about Karl-Anthony Towns<\/a>\u2019 regular-season dominance over the Atlanta Hawks, so his slow start to Game 1 of their first-round playoff series<\/a> stood out.<\/p>\n

Towns attempted only one shot in the first quarter, didn\u2019t score until there was 4:50 left in the first half, and didn\u2019t make a basket until there was 2:53 remaining before the break.<\/p>\n

This was after Hawks head coach Quin Snyder acknowledged during his pregame press conference that the towering Towns presented a difficult challenge<\/a> for his team\u2019s undersized, banged-up front court.<\/p>\n

But Towns took over when it mattered most, scoring 11 of his 25 points in the fourth quarter to help lead the Knicks to a 113-102 win at Madison Square Garden<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe ball went in for him in the second half,\u201d head coach Mike Brown said.<\/p>\n

The 7-foot Towns averaged 28.5 points on 62.9% shooting and 13.5 rebounds per game in two regular-season meetings with the Hawks, who traded away 7-2 center Kristaps Porzingis in February and are currently missing 6-11 backup center Jock Landale due to an ankle injury.<\/p>\n

But Towns began Saturday\u2019s playoff game as a facilitator, repeatedly looking for cutters rather than chasing his own shots.<\/p>\n

Towns assisted on two of the Knicks\u2019 first three field goals \u2014 both to Jalen Brunson \u2014 and recorded three assists before he made his first basket.<\/p>\n

\u201cI wanted to know \u2014 they had a week of practice \u2014\u00a0 to see what their game plan was,\u201d Towns said. \u201cSeeing the pressure, when you\u2019ve got someone like [Brunson] and the amazing teammates we\u2019ve got, I wanted to make sure to get them going early.\u201d<\/p>\n

That helped Brunson erupt for 19 points on 8-of-11 shooting in the first quarter.<\/p>\n

\u201cIn the first half, he facilitated a lot,\u201d Brown said of Towns. \u201cWe played through him. He made some great passes for some easy buckets, and so we\u2019re just trying to mix it up for him.\u201d<\/p>\n

Scoring was a grind for Towns early on, however. He went into halftime with six points on 1-of-6 shooting, and he was 2-of-9 from the field going into the fourth quarter.<\/p>\n

Meanwhile, his counterpart, 6-10 Hawks center Onyeka Okongwu, scored 10 points in the first half and finished with 19, going 4-of-6 from 3-point range.<\/p>\n

But it was KAT who loomed largest down the stretch.<\/p>\n

He shot 4-for-4 from the field, including 2-for-2 on 3-pointers, in the game\u2019s final 7:29. His 3-pointer with 4:36 to go put the Knicks up by 19, serving as the exclamation point and providing more than enough cushion, even as the Hawks closed the gap in the waning minutes.<\/p>\n

Towns finished 6-of-13 from the field and 10-of-10 from the free-throw line. He added eight rebounds, four assists and three blocks, along with five turnovers.<\/p>\n

Defensively, Towns contested 10 of the 12 shot attempts on which he was the primary defender, and Atlanta made only three of them, according to ESPN Insights<\/a>. That 25% rate of baskets allowed was the fourth best of Towns\u2019 playoff career.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019ve got an amazing team that, not only our starting five, but everyone on the team could impact winning and can go out there and do an amazing job,\u201d Towns said. \u201cSo, just us continuing to trust each other and us going out there as a team and winning as a team is the most important thing.\u201d<\/p>\n

Towns is a major X-factor for the Knicks, not only in this series but for the entirety of this playoff run. At his best, Towns is a matchup nightmare who forms a potent one-two punch with Brunson.<\/p>\n

And while the six-time All-Star finished with a career-low 13.8 shot attempts per game this season, Towns entered the postseason playing his best basketball of the year.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe longer we\u2019re on the court together, our chemistry\u2019s better,\u201d Brunson said. \u201cI think we\u2019ve grown as teammates, grown as friends.\u201d<\/p>\n

It was a special night for Towns beyond the production and the victory. His father, Karl Sr., was back in the stands Saturday after recovering from a recent medical procedure.<\/p>\n

\u201cTo have someone who I would say is the most important person in my life, it\u2019s really awesome to be able to have him back in Madison Square Garden supporting me,\u201d Towns said.<\/p>\n

\u201cI feel like any son out there who plays basketball or plays any sport, you get to see your father there at your competition, you always have a sense of pride, and you want to make him proud.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Much was made about Karl-Anthony Towns\u2019 regular-season dominance over the Atlanta Hawks, so his slow start to Game…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":738897,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[5122],"tags":[5229,23882,24114,24115,8606,1260,405,403,5226,5225,5228,5227,1425,67,586,132,5230,68,2969],"class_list":["post-738896","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-new-york","tag-america","tag-hawks","tag-jalen-brunson","tag-karl-anthony-towns","tag-knicks","tag-nba","tag-new-york","tag-new-york-city","tag-newyork","tag-newyorkcity","tag-ny","tag-nyc","tag-playoffs","tag-united-states","tag-united-states-of-america","tag-unitedstates","tag-unitedstatesofamerica","tag-us","tag-usa"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/116431851838017652","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/738896","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=738896"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/738896\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/738897"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=738896"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=738896"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=738896"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}