Karl-Anthony Towns scores 27 and grabs 20 rebounds as Knicks survive Raptors, 121-115

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Karl-Anthony Towns scored 27 points and pulled down 20 rebounds, and Jalen Brunson knocked down crucial buckets to finish with 28 of his own as the Knicks held on to beat the Raptors, 121-115, Tuesday night in Toronto.

New York held a 23-point lead in the third and pushed its edge back to 16 just three minutes into the fourth before Toronto cut the deficit to four points with under six minutes to play as New York went 0-for-7 from the floor with two turnovers.

A Brunson jumper and Towns lay-up (around a Raptors three) set up the game’s final four minutes with the Knicks up just five. But a once listless Raptors side whittled the lead down to just one before Josh Hart won a jump ball in the offensive zone, collected his own miss, and knocked down the first of back-to-back buckets to ensure the Knicks never lost what once looked like an insurmountable lead.

Brunson sealed the deal with a tough stepback jumper and (after another Towns rebound) a pull-up three with 26 seconds left to seal the game.

On the second night of a back-to-back, the Knicks did their best to dip twice with a commanding lead on second-chance points – 18-0 in the first half. But the legs appeared heavy after the halftime interval as New York shot 47 percent (22-for-47) and got just six second-chance points in the second half. And the Canadian hosts began to get many more looks at the cup, shooting 56 percent (23-for-41) in the second half after shooting 48 percent (20-for-42) in the first.

The Knicks shot just 10-for-26 (38 percent) in the fourth as the win nearly slipped through their fingers.

With the win, Tom Thibodeau‘s team completed the four-game series sweep over the Raptors (the second straight year they’ve achieved that feat) and improved to 34-17 on the year with their seventh win in the last eight games. Toronto fell to 16-34.

Here are the takeaways…

– Towns, also meeting a physical Toronto defense in the first, was doing his best work on the offensive glass with four rebounds on that end to give him seven points in the game’s first six minutes. On the first possession of the second, Towns got poked in the eye by Kelly Olynyk and…

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Source link : https://sports.yahoo.com/karl-anthony-towns-scores-27-031000882.html

Author : SNY

Publish date : 2025-02-05 03:10:00

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