Karl-Anthony Towns' foul count going up, yet Knicks keep winning
Knicks center Karl-Anthony Towns, left, makes a move to get past Orlando Magic center Wendell Carter Jr. (34) during the first half of an NBA basketball game, Friday, Dec. 27, 2024, in Orlando, Fla. Credit: AP/John Raoux
WASHINGTON— As the Knicks have begun to find their way, winning six straight games and 16 of their last 20 entering Saturday night’s game against the Wizards, teams have tried to figure out a way to slow down Karl-Anthony Towns.
Matching a big defender against him often means a player too slow to keep up with the athletic Knicks center. A smaller defender finds himself muscled by the 7-foot, 248-pound Towns.
The best way to slow him hasn’t come from the centers or power forwards defending him, but from the officials.
Towns found himself in foul trouble in each of the Knicks’ previous four games. There were two fouls in the first quarter in New Orleans, three by halftime and five for the game. Against Toronto, he had three fouls in the first half and fouled out in the fourth quarter. On Christmas Day against San Antonio, Towns had two fouls in the first half but was assessed two more in the third quarter and five in the game. And in Orlando on Friday, he had three in the first half and got his fourth in the third quarter, limiting his minutes and aggressiveness.
“It is what it is,” Towns said after the Knicks’ 108-85 win in Orlando. “The best thing about it, we’re winning. That’s the only thing that matters at the end of the day.”
The Knicks have managed to win all of those games. Some of that may have to do with the schedule; they are in a stretch of the season in which they are playing almost exclusively against sub-.500 teams. In the case of Orlando, the Magic are severely shorthanded because of injuries.
In those last four games, Towns averaged 19.8 points and 9.3 rebounds. It’s a significant drop from the 25.0 points and 14.2 rebounds he had been averaging before that four-game stretch.
While it’s easy to see Towns’ disagreement with the calls on the court, and at one point coach Tom Thibodeau took up the cause, there have been no technical fouls in the arguments. Towns has only one technical foul in the last two seasons. It came earlier this season against Orlando when he and Mo Wagner were battling and got double techs.
The fix, according to both Thibodeau and Towns, starts with the player.
“First let’s start with the man in the mirror,” Towns said. “Maybe you’ve got to make better decisions. I give up possibly one to two [cheap fouls]. Do my job first. Take out the ones that I can handle.
“The other ones, that’s up to God,” he added, laughing. “It ain’t up to me. I’ve been told every possible way I could be getting one. It is what it is. The good thing about this, we’re winning.”
Asked if there is something he saw that could help Towns avoid foul trouble, Thibodeau said, “Yes and no. There’s good, aggressive fouls and there’s fouls that are obviously cheap that you have to clean up. I think that’s the important thing for him to understand. [It’s] the difference between the two and how it’s being called. And I think discipline is the most important thing.
“And we want the contact, but we also want it to be done with intelligence. It’s a big part of physicality, it’s a big part of winning. What are the officials looking for? He’s been around long enough to know there are things they’re looking for that trigger calls. So be disciplined. The verticality being one of them, setting screens. That’s twofold because oftentimes that’s partly the responsibility of the ballhandler setting up the screening angle. So the two go hand-in-hand. And I think the more time we have together as a team, the better we’re going to get at that.”
Notes & quotes: The Wizards, who entered the game with a 5-23 record, were without Kyle Kuzma (rib sprain), Jordan Poole (hip contusion), Marvin Begley (knee sprain and Saddiq Bey (ACL surgery). Jalen Brunson was questionable heading into the game with right calf tightness, but after warming up, he was given the green light to play and start. He had 32 points through three quarters.
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.
