INDIANAPOLIS — Jalen Brunson had a front-row seat to the Karl-Anthony Towns show, and he was just as impressed as everyone else.
Brunson was on the bench in foul trouble Sunday night, when Towns took over, scoring 20 points in the fourth quarter of the Knicks’ dramatic, come-from-behind Game 3 victory at Gainbridge Fieldhouse.
“I mean, I saw the same thing you guys saw: I saw a guy go out there who did not want to lose, and so the way he just went out there and basically got that game for us was remarkable,” Brunson said.
The challenge for the Knicks is to get that aggressive, take-charge Towns more often.
Too frequently, he isn’t involved enough in the offense.
But Game 3 showed just how potent of a weapon Towns can be.
“There’s always gonna be a lot of things that’ll happen throughout a game, and so you can say yeah we can implement a plan to where he doesn’t have to wait until the fourth quarter, but everything happens throughout the game to where you have to respond, you have to react, you have to adjust,” Brunson said.
Towns reacted pretty well in Game 3.
The Knicks did a much better job defending Pascal Siakam on Sunday night.
After the forward torched them for 39 points in Game 3, he was held to 17 on 4-of-14 shooting in Game 3.
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Part of that was limiting the Pacers to just two transition points in the second half.
“Pascal is a great player. So, just after that Game 2, just trying to make it as difficult as possible,” OG Anunoby, who played with Siakam in Toronto, said. “Maybe not help as much in certain situations and not give him easy looks or shots. Just try to make it as difficult as possible and force him into uncomfortable possessions.”
What’s happening on and off the Garden court
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The last-two-minute report released on Monday revealed two incorrect calls, benefiting each team once.
With 41.1 seconds left, the Knicks were awarded the ball when Jalen Brunson lost it on a drive.
It should’ve been Pacers possession.
Later in the game, with the Knicks ahead by four and 9.7 seconds to go, Mikal Bridges was called for a foul while guarding Tyrese Haliburton that resulted in two free throws.
The NBA ruled that it was marginal contact and should not have been called a foul.