The New York Knicks secured a much-needed bounce back win over the Portland Trail Blazers thanks to some late game heroics. However, they did it without their All-Star center on the floor.
Knicks’ Karl-Anthony Towns sits most of the 4th quarter versus Blazers
Karl-Anthony Towns sat the final 9:24 of the game as the Knicks rallied back to win 123-114. Mitchell Robinson, OG Anunoby, Miles McBride, and Josh Hart provided the biggest impacts down the stretch, helping shut down Portland’s quick offense and turning it into efficient offense for themselves.
Head coach Mike Brown justified his decision to keep Towns on the bench down the stretch following the win on Sunday.
“We normally do [close with Towns]. On the minutes sheet, he’s there [to play down the stretch]. But we strung a lot of stops together. And we were getting out and going. And I will do this — if I think a group is rolling, I’ll keep a group out there. As long as it doesn’t impact a guy’s minutes drastically. And that group was rolling and I kept them out there because of it,” Brown said (h/t Stefan Bondy of the New York Post).
Brown trusted his bench to provide a spark
Towns actually played a solid game overall, finishing with 20 points and 11 rebounds, including two three-pointers. However, he was a -8 in the short two and a half minutes he played to start the fourth, and he committed two boneheaded fouls to help put the Blazers in the bonus with still over eight minutes left in the period.
Nevertheless, Brown made a gutsy call to sit him and bring in Robinson, to which he made a huge impact on the glass for the Knicks. Robinson recorded four rebounds and blocked two shots in the fourth quarter, providing quality rim protection against the tall and physical Blazers frontcourt.
This will unlikely become a normal thing for Towns, but credit to Brown for trusting his entire team to make an impact when he needed them to. They’ll look to continue their winning ways on Wednesday when they head to Sacramento to face the Kings.