New York Knicks Star practices free throws after historic night

Karl-Anthony Towns scored in bunches for the New York Knicks on Wednesday night, but his lack of singles stuck with him.

Towns set another personal best in scoring in a Knicks uniform again, scoring 46 points on 18-of-30 shooting from the field against the Chicago Bulls. However, it wasn’t enough to steer New York from a dire fate as they dropped a 124-123 decision.

With 46, Towns is the first Knick to score two 40-point games in the first 11 of a season in franchise history. It’s also the third-best scoring effort in the NBA this season behind Giannis Antetokounmpo’s 59 also on Wednesday and matching 50s by Paolo Banchero and Victor Wembanyama.

It didn’t matter to Towns in the aftermath.

“I don’t care,” Towns stated bluntly, according to Ian Begley of SNY. “If there’s no ‘W’ attached to it, it’s a bad night.”

Most of Towns’ scoring output came in the second half, when the Knicks (5-6) took several late leads despite trailing by as much as 22 in the latter stages of the third quarter. Towns was 12-of-19 from the field in the second half, including 3-of-7 from three-point range, but cruel irony ended up defining his night: free throws proved costly for Towns, who went 4-of- 8 from the line in a game the Knicks lost by one.

After the game, MSG Network cameras caught Towns, still decked out in the Knicks’ traditional home white, shooting free throws in an empty Madison Square Garden with assistant coach Mark Bryant.

Towns is shooting just under 84 percent from the foul line in his career and was at 87 percent entering the Knicks Wednesday night. Wednesday’s game was his first in which he shot 50 percent from the line with at least eight attempts since April 2016, the end of his rookie season with the Minnesota Timberwolves.

“I was disappointed with that free-throw shooting display by me,” Towns said. according to Peter Botte of the New York Post. “I expect to make them all. When you look back at the game, especially when you don’t win in a tough game like this, you look in the mirror at everything you could have done. If I make a couple of those free throws, at least two or three of them, you put your team in a different position.”

To Towns’ point, the Bulls (5-7) ended up winning the game at the charity stripe when Coby White sank an allotted three as Josh Hart threw him a would-be game-winner from deep with just over three seconds left.

While Towns wasn’t willing to revel in his highlight-worthy night, Jalen Brunson certainly was.

“Karl just did great,” Knicks point guard/captain praised in video from SNY. “The way he’s able to do it on the field, he makes it look effortless. It’s just who he is. It’s great to see that in our team now, but we’ve seen it in the last 10 years.”

Towns’ extra work was perhaps even more surprising given that he played the final moments of Wednesday’s game with a noticeable limp after making knee-to-knee contact with Zach LaVine. Nonetheless, he figures to be back in action Friday night when the Knicks face a big-city civil war against the Brooklyn Nets (7:30 p.m. ET, MSG).

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