Can the Knicks get Karl-Anthony Towns back on track against the Pistons before it's too late?

It’s difficult to speed Jalen Brunson up. The Knicks' All-Star point guard is pretty damn good at operating at his own pace on the court, controlling the tempo of a game and, when necessary, pivoting from one angle of approach to another.

He’s got that same control off the court, too.

After New York’s loss to visiting Detroit in Game 2 of their first-round playoff series on Monday — a defeat that handed the precocious Pistons home-court advantage in the best-of-seven set, which resumes Thursday in Game 3 at Little Caesars Arena — Brunson fielded a question about how he’d assess his offensive performance in the defeat.

“I feel like I'm getting to spots, and missing shots I normally make,” Brunson said.

Brunson then took a long pause, weighing his words, considering the potential angles of approach. And then: the pivot.

“I feel like it could be a lot better,” he added.

Brunson declined to offer specifics on that count, but after a night that saw the Knicks finish with just 15 assists on 34 made baskets in Game 2 — 11 fewer than their Game 1 win, and their lowest total of the season — en route to their third-least-efficient offensive performance of the campaign, the main avenue for improvement seemed clear as day, laid bare by a number louder than a bomb:

Karl-Anthony Towns — the All-Star floor-spacing center that New York had swung a blockbuster deal to import on the eve of training camp with the express purpose of making the Knicks’ offense sing — had a grand total of zero shot attempts over the final 17 minutes of the game. And that’s not a tune this Knicks team can dance to.

Less touches for Towns

Towns, who averaged 59.6 touches per game during the regular season and got 56 in Game 1, according to Second Spectrum tracking, finished with just 36 in Game 2 — his second-lowest total of the season, according to Jared Dubin of Last Night in Basketball. Maybe Towns wasn’t trying to force the action … but that’s at least partially because there wasn’t much action for him to force.

All told, Towns attempted 11 shots in Game 2 — just the ninth time this season he got up fewer than a dozen shots. Three of those came in New York’s first three games of the season, right after his arrival, prompting Brunson to tell reporters that it was his responsibility to "make sure that we're all on the same page and to make sure everyone's eating."

After that, feeding Towns became a priority, with the pair developing one of the league’s most potent pick-and-roll partnerships and fueling New York’s rise up the offensive efficiency charts. The big fella’s been eating less of late, though.

Since Brunson’s return from an ankle sprain late in the season, Towns’ usage rate is 23.3% — down from 27.2% before the return. Before the All-Star break, Brunson assisted on Towns’ baskets 1.8 times per game; since mid-February, including these first two playoff games, that’s down to 1.1 per contest.

It makes sense that the dimes are down, though; so are the overall number of passes. Prior to the All-Star break, Brunson was passing to KAT 10.3 times per game, with those feeds accounting for nearly 18% of the Knicks captain’s total passes. After the break, that dropped to 8.4 per game, just under 14% of the whole. And through two games against Detroit, Brunson has passed to Towns just 12 times, resulting in a mere two assists.

Sometimes, the issue appears to be Brunson — who led the league in time of possession during the regular season and has increased his take by a minute and a half through two postseason outings — choosing to charge ahead into the teeth of the defense rather than spray the ball out to a waiting 42% 3-point shooter:

Sometimes, it seems like New York’s system is just operating the way its architect intended.

Brunson finished fourth in the NBA in usage rate last season. While that dropped to 20th this season after the arrivals of Towns and Mikal Bridges, Brunson still led the league in “clutch” usage rate, finishing an eye-popping 42.4% of New York’s offensive possessions in the final five minutes of close games.

When it matters most, Thibodeau wants the ball in Brunson’s hands … and in the playoffs, it always matters most. That can leave complementary players — even ones as gifted and decorated as Towns, a likely soon-to-be three-time All-NBA selection who has averaged more than 20 points per game for nine straight seasons — on the fringes of the frame, watching Brunson operate at the center.

Towns averaged fewer 3-point attempts per game this season (4.7) than he had since 2018-19 in Minnesota — the last season during which he was coached by Thibodeau. The last time he hoisted fewer than three triples per game in the postseason was in the opening round in 2018 … when he spent much of his time in the series drawing a switch and then spacing to the corner. During that series, Thibodeau emphasized the importance of making the right reads and trusting the pass. Towns talked about executing the game plan to the best of his ability.

Asked in the locker room after Game 2 what he can do to make more of an offensive impact, Towns answered, “I don’t know. I was executing what we said we wanted to do.”

How the Pistons are making it tough on Towns

Towns offered similar refrains in response to a pair of other questions, including one about whether the Pistons were doing anything different defensively to short-circuit him; he said he’d need to look back at the film to tell for sure. One thing they did, that they’ve done since the start of Game 1, and that a number of teams have done against Towns and the Knicks: toggle the defensive matchups by putting power forward Tobias Harris, who mostly checked OG Anunoby during the regular season, on Towns in a move aimed at allowing Detroit to switch Brunson-Towns pick-and-rolls — or, better yet, snuff them out altogether.

Putting point-of-attack pests Ausar Thompson and Dennis Schröder on Brunson has given Detroit both a physical presence and the ability to deftly navigate ball screens. And putting Harris on Towns gives the Pistons a quicker defender to stick with Towns without sacrificing strength. In Game 2, especially, Harris prioritized doing his work early, looking to either deny Towns a clean catch or push him an extra couple of feet away from the basket before receiving it, and largely staying attached to him when he set ball screens to try to keep the Knicks center from ever getting a look on the pop:

At the same time, putting center Jalen Duren, who primarily guarded Towns during the regular season, on Knicks forward Josh Hart, has allowed the Pistons’ center to sag off of the most inconsistent long-distance shooter in New York’s starting five and spend more time parked in and around the lane to dissuade drives, contest interior shots and corral defensive rebounds.

“When they do that, it’s different,” Brunson said of the sort of cross-matching Detroit’s doing. “We have a guy who’s probably going to be a smaller guy guarding KAT, so KAT’s able to either take him to the post or play him out on the perimeter, whichever he wants — because that's his game, that’s what he’s able to do. And Josh is going to read the defense. He's going to set screens. He's gonna get to the short pocket, and he loves to make plays for others.

“And so, it's all about kind of reading what the defense does. It doesn't matter who's on who. Everybody’s got to attack what we see as an advantage for us.”

In practice, though, it has tended to provide an advantage for the defense. Opponents have cross-matched on Towns more and more as the season has progressed, prompting a reduction in how often he sets ball screens, how many pick-and-pop 3s he gets, and the overall effectiveness of New York’s offense. A Knicks attack that ranked second in the NBA in points scored per possession at the end of December ranked 16th after the start of January, with lineups featuring Brunson and Towns scoring about two fewer points per 100 possessions in 2025 than they had before the calendar flipped.

The Knicks can counter it in part by repeatedly putting Towns’ size and shotmaking to work against whichever smaller defender he draws, as they did throughout Game 1, when he scored 23 points on 10-for-14 shooting …

… and on a handful of possessions early in Game 2, with New York clearing out one side with shooters spotting up opposite Towns, daring Detroit to either guard him straight up or bring Duren on a double-team, potentially opening up the glass or back-door cuts:

Towns has the tools to counteract that kind of coverage. Thibodeau can make it easier for him by running some cross-screens as Towns goes from block to block, aiming to briefly dislodge Harris and keep him from pushing KAT out, allowing KAT to get deeper and more advantageous post position.

“Obviously, I’m always trying to get involved as much as possible,” Towns said after Game 2. “Whether that’s post-up — you know, I’ve worked tremendously hard on my game to have an outside and inside game, I think I’ve proven that to the world, year in and year out.”

The question that Thibodeau’s likely mulling over, though: Can Towns do the hard work consistently and efficiently enough to justify diverting a larger share of the offense away from Brunson?

Game 3 adjustments?

If the cross-matching continues to be a problem, Thibodeau could look to respond in kind, trying a configuration that replaces Hart, who shot 33.3% from deep this season and has taken only three triples in two games, with Deuce McBride, a superior shooter who hit 37% of his long balls this season. Putting a fifth shooter that defenses have to respect on the floor would make it harder for Duren to roam and play free safety, which could lead Bickerstaff to toggle the matchups back to having KAT guarded by a center, potentially unlocking the Brunson-Towns two-man game.

On one hand, Thibodeau’s probably unlikely to flip that particular switch. He relies on Hart’s rebounding, physicality, toughness and defensive versatility too much to drastically minimize his minutes, and he didn’t show much interest in test-driving the lineup featuring McBride alongside Brunson, Towns, Anunoby and Bridges during the regular season; it played just 42 minutes. (Playing smaller also wouldn’t figure to address the rebounding concerns that Thibs harped on after the Game 2 loss; more minutes for the Towns-Mitchell Robinson pairing could be on the way, though that wouldn’t figure to change the dynamics of the Harris cross-match.)

On the other, though, a surprise rotation adjustment wouldn’t be out of the question in an environment where every single game is its own unique battle.

“Each game is different,” Thibodeau said. “You have to reset. Whether you win or lose, you reset and get ready for the next one. You have to understand what goes into winning.”

What goes into winning for these Knicks is finding ways to maximize the benefit of having one of the best big-man shooters of all time. They’ve struggled to do that for months, and it cost them dearly in Game 2. Coach, captain and center have to come together to find better answers — quick.

“It’s on me to make sure I set the table,” Brunson said after Game 2. “So I'll go back and I'll figure out what I need to do, we'll have conversations, and we’ll come back better for Game 3.”