The Knicks didn’t capitalize on their biggest mismatch until it was too late.
The Detroit Pistons entered Thursday’s game at Madison Square Garden with both centers, Jalen Duren and Isaiah Stewart, suspended for a brawl with the Charlotte Hornets before the All-Star break.
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Yet the Knicks don’t play often against a Pistons team without their six-time All-Star center until the third quarter, a troubling trend that has plagued New York, which fell to 0-3 on Thursday against the Eastern Conference’s No. 1 seed by an average of 28 points.
Towns scored 21 points, 11 rebounds and 4 assists that night, but only made 2 of 3 shots in the first half, helping the short-handed Pistons lead by 10 points at halftime.
“I mean, our offense is our offense. That’s been the case all year,” said the Knicks star, who is coming off the worst season of his career under new Knicks head coach Mike Brown. “So we have our systems in place, and regardless of who is in the game or not in the game, we run the systems that we implement for our team to the best of our ability.”
Towns suggested the team attack through him more in the third quarter, when he scored 12 points on 3-of-5 shooting and 5-of-5 free throws.
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“Just trying to play well. Stay aggressive and playmaking. There are opportunities to make shots and I want to take advantage of them,” he said. “I’m glad I was able to give us a spark and try to start the third quarter strong. If I could control anything in the third quarter, what I definitely wanted was to get us started fast. I’m glad I was able to do that and find opportunities to exert my will in the game.”
Knicks head coach Mike Brown has long maintained that Towns’ offensive role is being established with the team’s new offensive look. But the big man has degraded beyond recognition: Towns averaged 19.8 points per game, his first season scoring less than 20 points since his rookie year. His 46.6 percent shooting from the field was the worst of his career, and his 35.1 percent three-point shooting was the second-worst of his career since his rookie year.
“He’s very comfortable,” Brown said. “We just continue to try to do different things to help him get free, and we’re going to continue to look for different things to try to get him free the rest of the year.”
However, before the game began, Brown said he did not believe utilizing the paint was necessary with Duren and Stewart out of the Pistons lineup.
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“[Attacking the paint] “That’s always our focus – whether these guys are on the floor or not,” Brown said, “you want to touch the paint, you want offensive rebounds. Whether we’re dribbling, cutting or rolling, that’s what we want to do. So hopefully tonight we can get it done.”
