Karl-Anthony Towns in the win: 18/12/4 on 54% TS
18 points
12 rebounds (4 OREB)
4 assists
1 block, 7⁄15 FG
https://www.espn.com/nba/boxscore/_/gameId/401859963
Everyone predicted KAT to be the biggest X-factor of the series and he’s really proving to be both a lethal offensive hub and very workable and physical on defense. His presence forces the Spurs to make very difficult decisions on defense.
I need KAT to get a ring to quiet all the slander
The state of MN agrees
A ring for KAT is a MN sports championship to me
KAT getting a ring before Jimmy Butler would make me so happy.
Jimmy’s ring will always be first, when he scored 2 points in practice against KAT’s team.
It’s like KG’s ring all over again
And just like KG, KAT fully embraced MN. Never asked out. That is a huge reason why Minnesota adores both of them.
Like Lions fans with Stafford when the Rams won the Super Bowl. MN and Knick fans are a unified force behind KAT rn haha
Everything I hear and have seen about KAT makes him out to be just a wonderful human being. It’s hard not to root for the guy.
New Yorkers know what it’s like very recently. Darnold with the Seahawks.
yeah Minnesota fans can’t really understand what that feels like
Proxy championships… That’s the best we can hope for. We already got Sam Darnold this year lol.
Not a Vikings fan, but as long as the Wild never win a chip before any of the other 3, I’ll be happy
Respect bro
The state of NY also agreed
Imagine a FMVP
He literally averaged like what 28⁄11 when he was the main man now he’s the no. 2 lol
Best shooting big traded for dubious handles man. Fuck you cj mccollum
Hey man, a lot of fans said they didn’t want super teams building dynasties no more. CJ McCollum is just obliging. Now every team gets one shot at a ring and then they gotta financially break it up the season after. That’s it. You better hope that your shot was when your roster was perfectly built and nobody got injured that year. 🤞
NBPA has been takin L after L if you look back lmao.
IDK it just made the NBA competitively more similar to the NFL, which isn’t necessarily bad
Wolves really picked Gobert over KAT smh
They had to, they were in cap hell
Why didn’t one of their stars just take a massive paycut? /s
They don’t work for TKO
We don’t have New York, LA shadow money to pay them under the table
Because of the CBA obviously, it was all a money problem
Don’t bother, you’re dealing with Gobert’s number one hater
Ah fair, I see that now lol
Even just ignoring the Gobert hate, I just can’t take him seriously with a username like that
Its entirely understandable.
It was an intelligence problem from the man running the team.
shouldn’t have traded 5 FRP for Gobert on a $205m contract in the first place
Surprised you are an angel Reese fan and a Gobert hater. Reese is like the WNBA equivalent of Gobert 0.25 with absolutely zero offense but worse defense
[removed]
True, shes going to get a ton of shots up at the expense of her team. Might be the worst offensive player in the league, but shes not going to let that stop her. She’s going out shooting (and tanking her team in the process).
Fascinated by your fandom/hatedom, its very ironic
Bro WE didn’t know KAT had this in him on defense
Wolves fans knew, still hurts.
Rooting for yall!
If you didnt watch him then yeah lol.
His main problems were mostly fouling at hilarious times
He isn’t the best with defensive IQ, especially if things are going his way from the jumo he used to start pouting and then make increasingly stupid mistakes defensively. At least before, I haven’t watched much of him with NYK.
He had it versus Durant when he was in Minny.
He had it versus jokic in the western semifinals.
The Knicks are just possessed right now. Team of destiny shit. Everyone’s shooting like 40% from 3. KAT’s clamping MVP candidates. Brunson is making the most absurd circus shots in the clutch. That 22pt comeback vs the Cavs.
Just need 3 more wins for these guys. See how much juice is left in the magic wand.
I mean not really no
You’re an Angel Reese fan??!?! 😆😂😆🤭😂😆🤭🤣😆🤭😆😂😂😂🤣🤣🤣🤣😂😆😆😂😆😂🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣😆😆😂😆😂😆😂😆😂😆😂😆😂😆😆😆😂🤭🤭🤭🤭🤭 hahahahahahahha oh man I haven’t laughed that hard in ages. What a chump 😆😆😆😆😆😆😆😆😆😆🤭
Reddit was saying KAT couldnt guard Wemby. He did a fantastic job tonight so hopefully he keeps it up for another 3 wins.
Played like a man possessed in the post tonight
He was more than holding his own against Wemby on defense too.
It was more than holding his own, he was legitimately great and clamped him. At one point late in the third the spurs were 1-8 with KAT as the primary defender.
They put a graphic on that was like wemby when defended by KAT and it was 1-8 3tovs
Pretty sure that was a stat for any Spurs possession with KAT as the primary defender like OP above said, not a stat for guarding Wemby one-on-one.
Nope that specific graphic was KAT on wemby. The other half was wemby on the whole spurs team
Noticed this in the okc series but something I’ve liked seeing guys do against him is use their strength & positioning to force him into midrangers. You need to be a big and fairly laterally quick for this to work (and you need a bit of physicality too) but KAT today, Hartenstein and Jaylin Williams have made him take some pretty bad shots with this method.
Main counters for Wemby in the future are improving his self-creation to make that midranger something really consistent (he’s definitely got the shooting touch for that imo) and getting off ball quicker. Finding someone on a hand-off before rolling to the rim would be better than him doing a KD impression. Getting stronger would also help but shorter guys will always have an advantage in terms of their center of gravity
DEFENSIVELY SHUT DOWN WEMBY
WHERE THE HATERS AT NOW
Wemby couldnt score on Brunson lol
7’4” but still can’t see over that bigass head
In reality I‘m 6‘2“ look at my forehead now I‘m 7‘5“
In Oklahoma
PUT SOME RESPECT ON MY MANS FUCKING NAME
KARL ANTHONY TOWNS
The Big Bodega
The Kat hate finally seems to be slowing down. Hes been underappreciated his whole career outside of MN
Agreed, the slander has always been stupid go me. He’s an absolutely fantastic 2nd option, and 3 wins away from being a champion.
KAT would take silly fouls constantly earlier this year, and would play defense with his hands more than his feet. He has really improved his on ball defense recently and tonight was the pinnacle of that D. Mike Brown running offense through his post game at times and letting him break down defenses has been a turning point in the playoffs for the knicks.
He’s playing much better now than any time in his Knicks career
he sonned wemby, and probably will continue to do so
As long as he doesn’t get called for fugazi fouls, he will continue to be awesome. Poor guy has the worst whistle in the league
Spot on. If refs don’t bail Wemby out, Knicks win the series. Quite handily
I think he gets a bad whistle, but its mostly for the FT’s he doesn’t get on the offensive end.
Most of the fouls he commits are earned.
He had some soft fouls considering how much contact they were allowing Wemby and the wings to put their hands on him.
Every single foul of his was legit and I think only one of them wasn’t a stupid mistake by him.
His one on one defense on Wemby was great.
Also kept the Knicks in the game in the 1st 3 quarters on offense before Brunson took over.
So now he can defend both Wemby and Jokic fair play
Outside of a couple bad reaches KAT really couldn’t have played Wemby any better.
Kat told himself he not going out like chet
He basically just decided to do everything the opposite of Chet, which was a great plan lol
Did more in one game than Chet in an entire series. Thunder fans I feel for you
It’s tough out here for a pimp. I’m going for the orange and blue team for sure
I don’t feel for them at all, they won a ring literally last year
Unreal defense
Best player by far today on either team
Everyone gonna talk about Brunson taking over the fourth but KAT was incredible this game defending and attacking Wemby
Insane first step for a big
*30 year old big at that
Nobody’s going to listen to me, but if the Knicks win the series, and Towns keeps playing like this, I think he should get FMVP.
I’m worried the media will give it to JB (he’s great too). Kat is the key though, especially when the opposing star is Victor.
He was 50-1 to win finals mvp after the second round lol
Great player. Has become underrated.
He was the best player on the court tonight. Defended Wemby really well, was the only way the Knicks could get good offense against Wemby until the end.
Absolutely locked Wemby up as well, masterclass from the Big Purrrr
Gonna be the reason they win the Finals. Said it before the series started. The Knicks are a terrible matchup for the Spurs and they have momentum.
Kept the knicks in the game when brunson was struggling, JB wouldn’t be able to close this game if KAT didnt keep them close
Better than Ewing
learning from the best (Ewing is practicing with the team during practices so I’d imagine he’s been helping out KAT and Mitch)
edit: Starks and Houston are also with the team in San Antonio
He evolved like a Pokémon
Meanwhile fox evolved backwards into a pigeon, and was just shitting all over the court
For real for real
By far the best Knick all post seasons and it continues tonight. It’s too bad the media won’t ever give him the proper credit for it.
His third quarter put them back in the game
Him against Wemby was the matchup to watch coming into the series and man KAT showed up to play tonight
I know he isn’t as tall and stuff but KAT on the court does make Wembys size seem much more human. Pretty stark difference from last series.
Aggressive KAT like tonight is the way we win this series. He is the X-Factor
What a fucking amazing game by him tonight man and not to mention his defense too. I LOVE YOU KAT!!!!!
It’s an honor be able to root for KAT
There were times where he got dominated by Wemby, but he had the resolve to not shrink and made many big plays. I thought KAT vs Wemby would be a repeat of Ewing vs Hakeem, but KAT is proving me wrong.
had some bad fouls but he is so damn important for this team against Wemby, as well as Mitch
Locked down Wemby as well
Don’t think I’ve done a complete 180 on a player like I have on KAT. Playing great
My boy!!!!
He was fearless at going at Wemby even when it didn’t work out, complete opposite of Chet.
kat was really good on defense too, was a problem for wemby
locked him up
Yep just gotta attack Wemby over and over again
Stats don’t do this man justice, he was incredible with the way he matched up with Wemby. I couldn’t have guessed this would’ve been the case after that 2024 run where it felt like he fouled out every game, but he was disciplined while being physical. Huge for the knicks if he keeps it up
KAT was 🤌🤌🤌🤌💪💪💪
He was a dog today
You already know
https://media.gifdb.com/independence-day-movie-will-smith-punches-alien-eizzoyydh9jeo5gj.gif[https://media.gifdb.com/independence-day-movie-will-smith-punches-alien-eizzoyydh9jeo5gj.gif](https://media.gifdb.com/independence-day-movie-will-smith-punches-alien-eizzoyydh9jeo5gj.gif)
Maybe the best defensive game I’ve ever seen him play.
best player in the game tn, played against wemby better than anyone i’ve seen
KAT >>> Wemby
It’s not just that, it’s the defense he plays. He has been the best player on the Knicks for the entire playoffs and it kills me that he gets zero recognition for that.
He’s so great, he saw how Chet got sonned and decided to attack
FMVP right now.
THE BIGGEST PURR ILY MY HEART
gonna be real, Brunson won the 4th quarter and game for the knicks but damn was Towns good and I’d consider the FMVP going to him.
3rd quarter was insane and knicks got back on Towns’ back. His scoring, rebounding and assisting was spectacular this quarter.
On top of that, his defense was so damn good. All game.
didn’t even need to turn into Domenican Jokic to dominate this one…
Knicks are gonna sweep
Using ts for 1 game and it being a playoff is silly … But yeah kat was great tonight and even more so fantastic in embracing his new role on this team
so why did the wolves trade him?
Idk they traded him and still ended up in the conference finals
They were gifted the conference finals by facing broken down Lakers and Warriors teams. Their contender status firmly ended immediately after the KAT trade
And this year their entire backcourt was broken.
I agree the Conley fall off likely would have ended their contention even if we kept KAT. I would love having KAT around as a trade chip to land a star PG though instead of shipping him out for Randle/Donte
Because they had to with the CBA. Kept about as good of a roster as they could
Naz Reid, Rudy Gobert, Jaden McDaniels
None of those names are more valuable than 32
You could definitely argue two combined is better than 1, considering the rotation would be filled with a minimum guy. Rudy was more important than Kat to the foundation of the team too. Love Kat, but its easy to understand why they did it (and that they had to)
Yeah it’s arguable.
I think the argument is playing out now though
Not really, the Wolves ended up in the same spot post Kat as they were before. The Knicks are just flat out a better team than the Wolves.
Either way, we blame Mccollum for making the new CBA and screwing us over. If the 2nd apron rules didnt exist, they wouldnt have to trade anybody.
Also, Kat was thought of as the clear worst contract in the league and coming off a horrible Dallas series. Its revisionist history from neutral fans to now scoff at the move, when everybody though it made sense at the time
DDV, Randle, and Beringer make a combined $7 million less than KAT. Because they traded KAT they also could trade for Ayo. So it’s basically KAT for Randle, DDV, Beringer, and Ayo.
If the Wolves went all in on keeping KAT the team would be
PG - NAW/Conley/Dillingham
SG - Ant/Clark
SF - McDaniels/TSJ
PF - KAT/Naz
C - Gobert/Rocco
A single injury and that team’s depth is annihilated. Clark has no offense, Dillingham was bad, Conley is washed, Rocco is a rookie 2nd round pick.
Would also be in the second apron for the foreseeable future with filling out the roster with minimum contracts.
I absolutely wanted them to Keep KAT and say fuck the second apron but I completely understand why they did the trade.
With their roster it was easier for them to try and recreate what KAT does than what Gobert does if they traded him instead. Naz just hasn’t made a step forward, losing NAW, and tbh AE isn’t as heliocentric of a superstar as they might need.
Money move
Your favorite player is damonis sabonis, I would shut the fuck up and delete your account but that’s just me
lmao cooked him
Totally outplayed Wemby
He looked so good tonight. Had the Spurs on their heels all game. Good for him. Good for Brunson.
Fuck the Knicks fans.