Karl-Anthony Towns played the New York Knicks’ season opener with a Grade 2 quad strain, scoring 19 points to go with 12 rebounds in their 119-111 win over the Cleveland Cavaliers. Towns was downgraded to doubtful on Wednesday afternoon before being upgraded to questionable an hour later.
“I’ve been banged up, and I really haven’t gotten a chance to practice or play in the last two preseason games,” Towns said before revealing the severity of his quad strain. “I didn’t want to disappoint the fans. It’s not something that’s easy to deal with, [but] we made it happen tonight.”
When asked if he was in pain while playing, Towns said: “It was hurting, for sure.”
Mike Brown used 11 players in the opener.
“This team is a deep team,” Brown said. “I give Leon Rose and his group a lot of credit. It’s my job to keep finding combinations that work. I got a lot of room to grow, too.”