Knicks' Karl-Anthony Towns Responded to Mike Brown's Halftime Challenge

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Karl-Anthony Towns #32 of the New York Knicks

In the early part of the second quarter of their game against the undefeated Pistons, the winless New York Knicks were trailing by 12 points and were having trouble containing the infectious energy of Detroit big man Paul Reed, who finished the game with 22 points and nine rebounds, including five offensive rebounds. With that in mind, coach Mike Brown went to Knicks star big man Karl-Anthony Towns and challenged him to do something–anything–about keeping Reed under wraps.

Brown explained what he said to Towns at halftime.

“KAT is a grown man, he is obviously a perennial All-Star,” he said. “I just told him the truth. ‘KAT, [Paul Reed] is killing us on the glass and when he gets a rebound he’s putting it back. Anything he gets in the paint, he is putting it back. If he gets on the perimeter, guard him.’

“And he did those things. I take my hat off to KAT because his shift in his mindset was really big for us in the second half. “

Karl-Anthony Towns Jolted Knicks to Win

Indeed, Towns and the Knicks turned the tables on Reed and the Pistons in the third quarter, outscoring them, 38-12 in the period and seizing control against a physical, hard-nosed team for New York’s first win of its NBA championship defense. Towns had some dominant numbers–27 points and 20 rebounds–and clearly tried to take control of the game, come hell or high water.

Towns finished with seven turnovers and five fouls, as well, but that was mostly because he was snapping his lax teammates out of their early season lull.

Towns explained: “I thought we did a better job picking up on our intensity and our physicality and we just executed at a high level. I talked before the game about how, for us to win this game, we have got to be the best version of ourselves. No matter what else goes on, 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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Karl-Anthony Towns on what changed for the Knicks coming out of halftime tonight “I thought we did a better job picking up on our intensity and our physicality and we executed at a high level. We’ve got to worry about the controllables, which is playing our best”