It was a tale of two halves for Karl-Anthony Towns in the Knicks' loss to the Pistons on Thursday night at MSG.
The big man scored just two points on three shots in the first two quarters as Detroit took a 10-point lead into halftime. However, the Knicks and Towns flipped a switch. Towns would use his size advantage to score at will, scoring 12 straight points for the Knicks and dashing the Pistons' lead to, at one point, two.
"Just trying to make a play, be aggressive with play-making," Towns said of his third-quarter outburst after the game. "Got a chance to get a shot up and wanted to capitalize on those opportunities. And hopefully get us a spark, start the third quarter on a strong note. If I could control anything, it was to get us off to a quick start. I’m happy I was able to do that and find chances to impose my will into the game."
Towns scored 19 of his 21 points in the second half. Not shocking considering the Pistons were down two of their best centers (Isaiah Stewart, Jalen Duren) for their parts in Detroit's brawl against the Charlotte Hornets before the All-Star break.
So, why did it take so long for the Knicks and Towns to exploit the mismatch? Head coach Mike Brown gave credit to the Pistons defense for not allowing the big man many good looks in the first half.
"In the first half, too, [the Pistons] switch a lot. So, with [Mitchell Robinson], they're going to blitz or double-team the ball. With KAT, they're going to switch, especially if they create separation," Brown explained. "And so we tried running some of the same actions they switched, and he didn't get as many good looks as he did in the second half. We opened it up and tried to set the screen a little bit higher and a little bit quicker in that second half, so we can get right to it, which freed him up at times."
Towns was asked if the team gameplanned to run the offense through him, knowing the Pistons would be down their two big men, and the second-year Knick said that wasn't the case.
"Our offense is our offense, it's been that way all year," Towns said. "We have our system; regardless of who is in the game or not in the game, we run the system that we have implemented for our team to the best of our abilities."
"He's comfortable, we're continuing to try to do different things to help free him up," Brown answered when asked how comfortable Towns is in the offense now compared to the start of the season. "And we'll continue to search to try to do different things to free him up throughout the course of the rest of the year."
Thursday's loss completed the season series sweep for the Pistons. After the first two losses were by 30-plus points each, the final regular season matchup was much closer.
Despite that, a loss is a loss and Towns understands what it could mean if the two face off in the postseason.
"There’s no moral victories or one New York wants to see," he said. "But we got a lot of film and we’ll see each other in the playoffs, and we got to be ready."