NEW YORK (AP) — Karl-Anthony Towns had scored 40 points in consecutive games for the first time in his career and was worried he might have thrown away the chance for it to come in a victory.
His turnover on an inbounds pass under the basket had contributed to the Knicks blowing a six-point lead with 10 seconds left in regulation, and suddenly they were headed to overtime against the Atlanta Hawks on Wednesday night.
“I would have needed a therapist if that had ended up in an ‘L,’ I’m not going to lie to you,” Towns said.
It didn't, with Jalen Brunson hitting the go-ahead jumper with 11.1 seconds left as the Knicks pulled out a 149-148 victory. New York improved to 36-18, its most wins before the All-Star break since 1972-73, its last championship season.
Now the biggest worry for Towns might be having to stop playing when he's really rolling.
He heads to San Francisco as an All-Star starter after scoring 40 points Tuesday in a victory at Indiana, followed by 44 more along with 10 rebounds Wednesday. He made seven 3-pointers, the most in his first season in New York.
Playing that like, who wants to stop now?
“I’m just happy we got ourselves going into the break with momentum,” Towns said. “But it is true, it’s the worst time, right, to have something working right now.”
Towns had struggled a bit recently after injuring the thumb on his shooting hand, but seems back on track. The consecutive nights with at least 40 points and 10 rebounds gave him five this season, second-most by a Knicks player behind only Hall of Famer Patrick Ewing's eight in 1989-90.
Towns joined Ewing, along with Bernard King, Carmelo Anthony and Brunson, who did it at the end of last season, as Knicks with at least 40 points in consecutive games.
Brunson scored 36 on Wednesday and it appeared early on like he would be the player who would carry the Knicks after scoring 16 on 6-of-7 shooting in the first quarter. But then Towns took over the load from there, scoring 15 of the Knicks' first 17 points in the second quarter, then scoring 15 more in the third.
Brunson, also an All-Star starter, then had six of the Knicks' 12 in overtime. But he said there was no plan to keep feeding Towns when he was hot and go then back to himself later.
“There’s no set time of whose turn it is or what. I mean, we don’t really play like that,” Brunson said. “I just think that we were reading, we’re playing and reacting, and just whatever it takes to win.”
Towns joked that he wanted to get in the scoring fun after Anthony Edwards, his former teammate in Minnesota, scored in 40 in three consecutive games.
“But no,” he said, “I’m just happy that those kind of nights resulted in wins.”
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AP NBA: https://apnews.com/NBA
Brian Mahoney, The Associated Press
