Towns Rebounds Dominates Magic
Photo: Special to the NY Beacon
By Samori Benjamin
The New York Knicks suffered their most disappointing loss of the early season with a 108-100 loss to the Atlanta Hawks on Wednesday night. The most disappointing aspect of the defeat was the fact it was for a spot in the Semifinals of the NBA’s In-Season Tournament Cup, which is in its second year. The loss was also the Knicks second straight at home and their second time losing to Atlanta this season.
The Knicks got poor shooting nights from their three best offensive players. Jalen Brunson shot 5-15, OG Anunoby shot 5-17, and Karl Anthony Towns was 7-15. One of New York’s biggest nemesis, Trae Young, finished the night with 22 points and 11 assists and forward DeAndre Hunter scored a game high 24 points. “It’s hard, the NBA game has so many runs. I think we got to a point where we missed a few shots and I think our defense gave us a chance to get out in transition which is important for us,” Atlanta Hawks Head Coach Quinnn Snyder said after the game. “We don’t want to be in a half court game, but that requires us to get stops. It’s harder when you’re taking the ball out of bounds to start a possession. But even then I thought the third quarter we committed to running and defending.”
Snyder hit the mark on the Hawks effort in the third quarter because they outscored the Knicks 34-18 in that quarter to flip a 54-47 deficit to a 81-72 advantage over New York after three quarters. Overall the Knicks were outscored 61-46 in the second half. The Knicks fall to 15-10 on the season and will next play at Orlando on Sunday afternoon.
The Knicks had 3 days off before they took on the Orlando Magic on the road. They took advantage to regroup and came away the 100-91 win. Jalen Brunson shook off the loss against Atlanta, leading the Knicks with 31 points. Karl-Anthony Towns chipped in with 22 points and was a monster on the boards pulling down 22 rebounds. Said Towns after the victory, “I thought we played good as a team. We made plays when we needed to for each other. I thought we played good defense, too. We did a lot of good things that we needed to do against a team that’s really good and that’s playing really well now in Orlando, found ourselves getting a win here, something that people haven’t been able to do.”
Towns returns to the city in which he played in for the first nine years of his NBA career when the Knicks play the Minnesota Timberwolves Thursday night.
Sports Editor Andrew Rosario contributed to this article.
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