SAN ANTONIO (AP) — Karl-Anthony Towns’ first two baskets of the NBA Finals were like countless others in his career. The New York forward got the ball 30 feet from the basket, surveyed the scene, drove right past his defender and scored at the rim.
These buckets, however, were not ordinary.
They were against Victor Wembanyama.
Towns helped set a tone for the Knicks in Game 1 on Wednesday night by going right at San Antonio’s best player — and the unanimous pick as Defensive Player of the Year — twice in the opening minutes. Towns didn’t get any more field goals against Wembanyama over the remainder of the game and didn’t have to, finishing with 18 points in New York’s 105-95 win.
“You just trust your work and you trust your decision-making, and I always say about being aggressive in playmaking: It may not be for the shot or get someone else a shot or get the hockey assist going,” Towns said. “For me, when I go out there, I try to be aggressive in playmaking.”
That holds true against the best defensive player on the planet.
The Knicks did a lot right in Game 1, but perhaps tops on that list was not letting the 7-foor-4 Wembanyama take over the game or even get into a rhythm on either side of the court. Wembanyama scored 26 points — on 6-for-21 shooting from the floor — and got a text from former Spurs coach Gregg Popovich between the end of Game 1 and Thursday afternoon’s practice.
The message from Pop? That “I’ve been bad and I’m better than this,” Wembanyama revealed.
While that may be true, the Knicks believe Towns deserved a lot of credit for not letting Wembanyama become completely dominant in the series opener.
“Wemby, man, obviously iconic player, you’re not going to stop him, you hope he misses,” Knicks coach Mike Brown said. “You’ve got to throw different people, different coverages at him. You got to try not to send him to the free-throw line. We sent him to the free-throw line 13 times, but KAT himself did a pretty decent job of trying to lead with his chest while being physical. Again, I think it’s all due to him wanting to do whatever he can to help the team while being present.”
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