NEW YORK — Standing at his locker after it was all over, Knicks All-Star Karl-Anthony Towns had a big smile on his face. It was an expression he could afford to have after his team managed to squeak past the Atlanta Hawks, 149-148, in overtime to win the NBA’s highest-scoring — and perhaps its wildest — game of the season thus far.
“I would’ve needed a therapist if we’d come out of that with an L; I’m not gonna lie to you,” said Towns, who finished with 44 points and 10 rebounds, but also had a turnover in the closing seconds of regulation that could have ultimately cost the Knicks the contest.
Jalen Brunson, who had 36 points of his own, hit a pull-up jumper with 11 seconds to go in overtime that turned out to be the game-winner.
“There’s no set time of whose turn it is or what. I mean, we don’t really play like that,” Brunson said. “I just think that we were reading, we’re playing and reacting, and just whatever it takes to win.”
But New York thought it had the game in hand far earlier; so much so that a number of fans — with the Knicks leading by six with 18 seconds left in regulation — started exiting Madison Square Garden to get a headstart on the commute home.
A Georges Niang triple cut the deficit in half with nine seconds left, and then Towns threw an errant pass on the ensuing inbound play that Hawks guard Dyson Daniels managed to steal under the basket before getting fouled.
Daniels made his first free throw to cut the Knicks’ lead to two, but missed his second. He grabbed his own rebound, and Hawks star Trae Young drew a foul before tying the game at 137 on a pair of free throws with two seconds left.
The abrupt turnaround left the Garden stunned; particularly since the Knicks had led by as many as 18 points earlier in the high-paced contest-one in which eight different players finished with 20 points or more.
The Knicks had blown a sizable lead to lose to the Hawks earlier in the season during the NBA Cup. But playing on the second end of a back-to-back Wednesday, New York dug deep enough to salvage the victory.
The Knicks’ win, flawed as it might have been, left them with a 36-18 mark heading into the All-Star Game, their best record through 54 games since the 1996-97 campaign. “It’s great to go into the break with a win, no matter how we got it,” said Brunson, who will be a starter in the exhibition this weekend along with Towns. “We fought through, regardless of what we did; positive or negative. We came out with a win.”
New York overcame Young, the infamous Garden foil, putting up a monster game with 38 points and 19 assists. He had the ball in his hands on the final possession of the contest, but found himself blanketed by Mikal Bridges, who got defensive help when Young called for a screen.
Young ended up kicking the ball to Niang for the last shot in the final second, but it was rushed, and misfired.
“I just saw too much of a crowd. I think if we had it to do all over again, we would have spaced it to allow me to go by [Bridges] and draw help or something. I think the screen caused too much combustion at the top,” Young said of the play design. “We didn’t get a good shot up.”
Source: espn.com