New York Knicks All-Star Karl-Anthony Towns was more than displeased after the team’s loss to the Boston Celtics on Saturday night.
Karl-Anthony Towns demands better play from Knicks
The Knicks were handed a decisive 131-104 defeat by the Celtics. While New York was without star forward OG Anunoby, Boston was down double the amount of impactful players with Kristaps Porzingis and Jrue Holiday sidelined.
Per SNY, after the game, Towns said this about what the team needs to do from here on out to prevent such defeats:
“We’ve got a lot of work to do, simple as that. There’s no sugar coating, there’s no moral wins, this is something we’ve got to work on… we’ve got to find a way to beat teams like tonight,” Towns said.
Knicks need wins over East’s elite to gauge title strength
The Celtics are the gold standard in the NBA, being the reigning champions. Racking up victories against them, as well as other elite Eastern Conference teams like the Cleveland Cavaliers and Milwaukee Bucks, is the best way for New York to see how ready they are to down said franchises in potential playoff clashes.
When looking at the Knicks’ effort on the affair, they were heavily reliant on All-Star Jalen Brunson (36 points) and Josh Hart (17 points) to do the heavy lifting on offense. Towns, Mikal Bridges and Precious Achiuwa combined for 23 points on 9-27 shooting from the field while their bench continued to struggle putting points up with 28 on the game.
Even without Anunoby, New York had more than enough offensive talent to give Boston a greater fight. Glaringly, the Knicks got dominated on the boards 48-30 even with their two-center starting lineup of Towns and Achiuwa. Thus, they’ll need to wage a more well-balanced attack and be more tenacious from a hustle standpoint in order to prevent losses like this and build momentum heading into the postseason.
