Knicks' Karl-Anthony Towns thriving on offense, but team needs him to be a rim protector as well

PHILADELPHIA — Ask Karl-Anthony Towns about facing Joel Embiid — repeatedly in any number of ways — and he will redirect the conversation back to the team. He will talk about the need for the Knicks to find a way to get a victory.

But with the Knicks feeling a bit of urgency after a miserable loss in Indiana, their third fourth-quarter collapse in the last four games, Towns and the Knicks are faced with the season debut of Embiid. And you can’t help but remember when actions between Towns and Embiid spoke louder than words.

Back in 2019 the two were wrestling on the court, prompting teammates and coaches and security to rush to separate them. Ben Simmons had jumped on Towns back with an arm around his neck on the floor. When asked in a podcast appearance on Club Shay Shay podcast just before the start of the season, Towns again dismissed the notion that there is some lingering anger.

First, when asked about a “beef with Ben Simmons,” Towns corrected Shannon Sharpe by replying, “Me and Ben? Or me and Joel? All of Philly?” But then he said, “Ah, just, just competition. I think that moment just happened with so much competition happening. [It's] two guys who feel they're the best and prove it against each other. I think that it's just competition. We just laugh about it at this point.”

That may be true, but that day it was Embiid who was pumping up the crowd as he was escorted to the locker room after both players were ejected. Now, Embiid has been sidelined as he works himself into shape and has restricted his tirades to the Philadelphia media That earned him a three-game suspension that ended in time for this game.

And the soft-spoken Towns now might have more to prove, namely that he can be the center on both ends of the floor that the Knicks need.

Towns has been a revelation on offense, averaging 24.9 points on 53.3% shooting, including 53.7% from beyond the arc, and he entered Tuesday’s game grabbing 12.3 rebounds per game. But his defense at the rim has quickly become a question mark. Towns is allowing better than 90% when he is the closest defender at the rim.

“It’s an adjustment,” Towns said of playing center after having Rudy Gobert playing beside him in Minnesota. “Got to adjust, all of us are trying to get more acclimated with each other. It’s a team game. Myself and all of us included we’ve just got to be a better defensive team. We’ve shown glimpses of what we can do, especially like the Milwaukee game, playing against a high-level team where we’re firing on all cylinders defensively. We’ve got to bottle up that kind of defensive intensity and execution and take it into every single game.”

“Just because we have great defensive players doesn’t mean things are going to be perfect or things are going to be great from the start,” Josh Hart said, referring to the trio of wing defenders the Knicks boast with OG Anunoby, Bridges and himself. “So we know that. We know it takes time to jell offensively and defensively. But the biggest thing at the end of day is we have to come out with a sense of physicality and energy from the start. Not let teams get into rhythm and focus on that.

“We got to make sure we take guys out of their game plan.”

The Knicks have relied on rim protection under coach Tom Thibodeau and the drop from what Mitchell Robinson and Isaiah Hartenstein provided has been drastic. But the Knicks believe that some of that is just bringing the new group together with Towns and Mikal Bridges newcomers on the roster.

“Getting a win,” Towns said after the Knicks morning shootaround. “Really, that’s it. There ain’t no other thing to talk about. Put something in the left column. Be better versions of ourselves than we were last game . . . Listen, all I’m worried about is finding a way for us to win a game. For us, we’ve got to figure out how to string wins together. We lose a game and then we have a decisive victory where we show the world what we can be when we’re locked in. We’ve just got to be locked in every night.”

By Steve Popper

steve.popper@newsday.com@StevePopper

Steve Popper covers the Knicks for Newsday. He has spent nearly three decades covering the Knicks and the NBA, along with just about every sports team in the New York metropolitan area.