Karl-Anthony Towns' message to his teammates entering the fourth quarter with the Knicks down 16 to the Houston Rockets was simple: Get stops.
In fact, he challenged his team to do so if they wanted to win the game and not be blown out for a second consecutive game following the All-Star break, himself included.
"I just challenged our team to start the fourth," Towns said. "I said, ‘we can win this game and I’ve seen us do it and it starts with the first possession of the fourth quarter playing defense. We gotta get a stop.’ I wanted to do my part as well and glad I was able to find a way to get that stop and from then I wanted to set the tone for our team and set the intensity level that we needed to play for for 12 minutes if we expected to come out with a win."
New York ended up pulling off an incredible fourth-quarter comeback by outscoring the Rockets, 33-15, in the final frame. Some of that was Jalen Brunson coming alive late in the quarter after Houston did a great job of limiting him offensively, but it was also the team-wide effort shown across the board.
Towns himself finished with 25 points and OG Anunoby was the main scoring threat early in the game, ending with 20 points while doing what he does defensively. Even role players like Jose Alvarado and Landry Shamet played important parts in the win, as did the raucous MSG crowd.
"We got stops. We got turnovers and that translated into offense and it gave us a confidence boost, that momentum," Towns said. "The crowd was amazing, all 15 guys on the team were amazing."
Before the fourth quarter, the Knicks had little answers for Houston's trio of Kevin Durant, Jabari Smith Jr. and Alperen Sengun. And even though Durant led all scorers with 30 points, he and the rest of the Rockets were held in check for the most part during the fourth quarter.
For example, Sengun went 0-for-4 with two turnovers in the fourth, mostly defended by Towns. Meanwhile, Alvarado (suggested to head coach Mike Brown by assistant Rick Brunson to be on the floor for the fourth) did most of his damage in the final frame and finished with eight points, four assists and five steals.
"We got stops that we needed and then our leaders KAT and JB stepped up and do what they do and took us to the promised land," Alvarado said.