Karl-Anthony Towns credited his late mother for how calm and confident he felt heading into Game 1 of the NBA Finals on Wednesday night.
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That certainly showed in the big man’s play.
Towns was tremendous on both ends of the court, helping the Knicks steal a thrilling come-from-behind victory on the road to open the series.
“He was amazing,” Mike Brown said. “He came up huge for us.”
The Spurs surprisingly started the game with Victor Wembanyama covering Towns, and the big man showed no fear going right at the unanimous Defensive Player of the Year.
While he had a quiet first half, he was particularly huge during the third.
Towns was able to find his groove and then took advantage of the non-Wemby minutes, cutting into a double-digit San Antonio advantage with a much-needed run.
Highlighted by a pair of three-points plays and a block turned into fastbreak the other way, he scored 10 of his 18 points during the monster frame.
Jalen Brunson, of course, then took things over down the stretch to pull out the victory.
The All-Star big man made just as much of an impact for New York, though, pulling in 12 boards to complete the double-double while holding his ground against Wemby on the other end.
San Antonio’s star led the team with 26 points on the night, but nearly half of those came from the free-throw line as he shot an inefficient 6-of-21 from the field.
Towns gave up just two of those makes, and he forced one of the NBA's best into four turnovers.
"You're just trying to make it difficult," Towns said. "He's an amazing, a one of a kind player that this league has ever seen, so you just try to make it as difficult as possible for him.”
To get the job done, New York will need Towns to keep up this play the rest of the way.