Knicks' Karl-Anthony Towns scores 44 to lead win over Heat, former teammate Jimmy Butler

MIAMI — It’s been nearly a decade since all of the craziness drove them apart, but for the first time since their breakup in Minnesota, Karl-Anthony Towns, Jimmy Butler and Tom Thibodeau were gathered back together on the same court as the Knicks and Miami Heat faced off at Kaseya Center Wednesday night.

They were once the promising core of a Timberwolves team that was rising in the NBA. Thibodeau was serving as coach and team president as he gathered Butler, the hard-nosed player he’d helped develop in Chicago and helped turn Towns into a young All-Star. And just as soon as it seemed on the rise it imploded. Butler was unhappy with his contract situation. He demanded a trade and tormented Towns until his departure.

Thibodeau was fired just months after Butler was traded and Towns remained in Minnesota until the Knicks swung the trade for him last month.

Now, Towns and Thibodeau face Butler in what already has been one of the NBA’s most long-running and heated rivalries. And if you ask Towns, he will shrug off any notion that he cares about things he has left in the past. But if you watch him play?

Towns scored 44 points, his highest since joining the Knicks, on 17-for-25 shooting. He grabbed 12 rebounds and helped the Knicks to a much-needed 116-107 win over the Heat. And when delivering the finishing punch, an aggressive offensive rebound with a follow and foul on Butler, Towns flexed as a show of strength.

“My motivation is to win basketball games,” Towns said after the morning shootaround. “So that’s all I’m really worried about. Trying to get one in the left column. We’ve gone win loss win loss, so trying to make it a win tonight.

“I’m here in New York. That’s all I’m thinking about right now. I’m a Knick. You’re bringing up Minnesota. I’m not a Timberwolf anymore. I’m a Knick. That’s all I’m worried about. My time as a Knick.”

Towns' 44 points were the most by a Knicks center since Patrick Ewing. The Knicks needed every bit of Towns performance as it took a while for most of his teammates to get on track. But after dismal starts, Jalen Brunson finished with 22 points and nine assists while Mikal Bridges added 17 points. Josh Hart, listed as questionable before the game with a right lower leg injury, had 10 points and 14 rebounds.

“Just a big game for us today, bounce-back game,” Towns said afterward. “Just wanted to do whatever I can to help us win. My teammates out there on the court put the trust in me with the basketball and the coaching staff, amazing game plan by them. I just wanted to repay their trust.”

Towns and Thibodeau’s parting was marked by a long period of tension. But Towns put an end to that years ago when he approached Thibodeau and started a conversation between them that certainly eased the reunion in New York.

“I mean, that was years and years ago,” Towns said of his relationship with Thibodeau. “We are totally different men. So it’s cool to be in this spot in our lives together.”

But asked if that ever happened with Butler, Towns dismissed the question. It doesn’t take a lot to add to the rivalry between the Knicks and Heat.

If Towns was ambivalent in his words about facing Butler he seemed to be fired up on the court. After a brief greeting at midcourt before the opening tip, Towns went at Miami more aggressively than he had in any game so far with the Knicks. After putting up just eight field-goal attempts Monday in the loss to Cleveland, he took that many in the first quarter this time, scoring 12 points on 5-for-8 shooting. By halftime he was up to 24 points on 9-for-14 shooting.

But the Knicks still trailed 58-52 at the break because he got little help scoring as Brunson was just 1-for-7 (0-for-3 from three) for four points and Bridges had six points on 2-for-9 shooting.

Butler was quiet much of the night, finishing with 15 points — seven in the fourth quarter.

“We started playing some defense,” Hart said.

“We locked in, got stops, got out and got good clean shots. We just started building momentum. We knew this was going to a be a tough team. We knew it was going to take the whole game to really kind of get ahead. We kept chipping away, kept chipping away until we finally made that run.”

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.