Scheduled
2026-27 · Regular season
Karl-Anthony Towns answers Mike Brown’s halftime challenge with 27 and 20: ‘Step it up not only one level but two levels’
Towns had 8 points at halftime against Detroit, then scored 19 with 11 rebounds after Mike Brown told him Paul Reed was 'killing us on the glass.' Brown also said Towns has to stop looking for 'home runs' after seven more turnovers.
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Karl-Anthony Towns had 8 points and 9 rebounds at halftime on Tuesday night. Then Mike Brown challenged him about Paul Reed, and Towns finished with 27 points and 20 rebounds as the New York Knicks beat the previously unbeaten Detroit Pistons 111-97 at Madison Square Garden for their first win of the season.
Towns scored 19 points and grabbed 11 rebounds, five of them offensive, after the break. Reed, who had 16 points in the first half, scored six after it.
“Kat, he’s a grown man. He’s obviously a perennial All-Star. I just told him the truth,” Brown said. “‘Kat, the guy is killing us on the glass, and when he gets a rebound, he’s putting it back. Or anything he gets in the paint, he’s putting it back. If he catches it on the perimeter, guard him.’ And he did those things. And I got to take my hat off to Kat, because I thought his shift in his mindset was really big for us in the second half.”
Brown on what he told Towns, posted by SNY on X.
“27 and 20, he’s more than capable of doing that night in and night out,” Brown said.
‘Not only one level but two levels’
Asked about Brown’s message, Towns said he wanted to do “whatever it takes to get us a win.”
“So just come out in the second half understanding that team is a great team, you know, not good, a great team, and we have to step it up not only one level but two levels, that we expect to beat them tonight, and I thought our team responded,” he said. “I thought we did a great job, like I said, of picking up the physicality and bringing a lot of energy to the game. Looked more like ourselves from last year, but you know, we still have a lot of room to grow.”
He said he had talked about it in a layup-line interview before the game. “For us to win this game, we got to be the best version of ourselves,” Towns said. “We just got to worry about the controllables, which is us playing our best, executing at a high level and bringing that physicality to the game.”
Towns on what changed after halftime, posted by SNY on X.
How the second half went
Detroit led 38-25 after the first quarter, and the Knicks went into the break up 51-50. Towns opened the third quarter with a driving layup off a pass from Josh Hart, and he scored 13 points in the period as New York outscored Detroit 37-13 to lead 88-63. Reed was called for a flagrant foul on Towns with 8:30 left in the third, and Towns made both free throws. Towns also hit a 25-foot three in the quarter that made it 74-56.
He shot 12-of-21 from the field and 1-of-5 from three in 33 minutes, with eight offensive rebounds and three assists. Through four games he is averaging 22.5 points and 14 rebounds.
Jalen Brunson, who scored 23, said the Reed matchup was not only on Towns. “Kat did a great job, but it’s just us around him and helping, having each other’s back,” Brunson said. “But just for him to step up and do what he did throughout the game and the way he played was something that we needed.”
‘Doesn’t look to hit home runs’
Towns also had seven turnovers, and he has 19 in four games. Brown said part of that is on the players around him.
“Kat’s got to take care of the ball, OK, a little bit better with his passes, but then there are times, too, where he makes the right pass and we kind of stop,” Brown said. “Every cut that you make, you have to finish it like it’s a scoring opportunity.” He said a couple of passes have hit teammates’ hands and gone out of bounds because they were not looking.
“And then Kat’s got to make sure he doesn’t look to hit home runs all the time, especially if a guy’s vision’s not there,” Brown said.
Asked whether he has a bigger playmaking role this season, Towns kept it short. “Playmaking or not, you know, we gotta find ways to win. You know, that’s the most important thing,” he said. “That’s the only thing I think about. I’m not thinking about everything else.”
‘Gotta get the next one’
Towns was not happy with the fourth quarter, when Detroit outscored New York 34-23. “I’m not happy with our fourth. You know, we put ourselves again in a position to lose the lead, but all in all at the end we found a way to win,” he said.
Asked where Josh Hart‘s energy comes from, Towns laughed. “Oh, I thought you were gonna say something completely different,” he said, before naming a candy. Hart had five steals and took two shots. Brunson’s answer to a similar question was “popcorn, candy, wine and caffeine.”
Towns on the first win of the season, posted by SNY on X.
“Gotta get the next one. It’s the only thing on the mind, just build off of this game and continue to improve as a team,” Towns said. “We just got to stay steady, keep believing in each other, keep pushing each other to another level.”
The 1-3 Knicks play at the Chicago Bulls on Wednesday at 8 p.m. ET, which is 3 a.m. Thursday in Cairo, and then visit Philadelphia on Friday.
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