Karl-Anthony Towns leaned into the Knicks huddle during a timeout, a towel draped over his neck, and told his teammates to stay with the defense while the offense found its footing. New York did exactly that, turning a 14-point hole into a 105-95 win over the San Antonio Spurs in Game 1 of the NBA Finals.
The result put the Knicks ahead 1-0 in the series and made Towns’ voice part of the night’s turning point. He said the team was shooting just 34 percent from the field and brushed it off with the belief that the score would come around if the defense held: keep playing that way, and the game could still be won.
That mattered because Game 1 was slipping away in San Antonio before the Knicks steadied themselves. Towns, a six-time All-Star and perennial 20-and-10 player, was not just talking from the side of the floor. He guarded Victor Wembanyama more than anyone else in the game, taking on the 7-foot-4 tower while Jalen Brunson kept hitting him when the Spurs ran screen-and-roll actions.
The numbers made the point, but they also showed the problem. New York won anyway, yet the offense was nowhere near clean, and Towns’ answer was built around a belief that has carried this group before. He pointed back to Game 1 in Cleveland, when the Knicks erased a 22-point, fourth-quarter deficit, and said the same script can work again even when the shots are not falling.
That is the wrinkle hanging over the series now. Towns has long been known more for scoring than defense and intangibles, and earlier in the season he had been described as uncomfortable in Mike Brown’s new offense. In this game, though, the Knicks survived on a different edge, and Towns said the team had each other’s back while the scoreboard was still tight.
Game 2 now carries the obvious question: if the Knicks keep defending Wembanyama this well, can they keep winning when the offense stays stuck near 34 percent? For one night, the answer in San Antonio was yes, and Towns was at the center of it.
