Karl-Anthony Towns on the bench in crunch time is starting to become a familiar sight.
He didn’t play the last 6:51 of the Knicks’ 103-87 win over the Kings Tuesday night at Madison Square Garden, with coach Mike Brown opting for Mitchell Robinson instead.
“He saw what he saw,” Towns said after the game. “We got a win, that’s the most important thing.”
Towns finished with 17 points, though on rough 5-for-15 shooting from the field, along with 11 rebounds. He finished minus-3, worst on the team.
Towns was similarly on the bench down the stretch of the win over the 76ers in Philadelphia on Saturday, but that was because he had fouled out.
Still, his minutes have waned recently.
On Tuesday, Brown opted to go with Jalen Brunson, Miles McBride, Mikal Bridges, OG Anunoby and Robinson for the closing minutes. And that was when the Knicks were most effective, finally taking control of the lowly Kings.
“At the end of the game, we had a group out on the floor that was playing well,” Brown said of Tuesday’s decision. “It was a tight ballgame, so I just rode that group to the end of the game, which I’ve done before. We have Deuce out there, who’s not a starter, Mitch out there, who’s not a starter. We needed to get the win.”
Keeping starters on the bench at the end of games is not something Brown is afraid to do — he benched Bridges for the end of Saturday’s game.
“During the flow of the game, you find a group of players that you feel are playing well together,” Brown said. “And you roll with it as long as you can.”
With the Knicks at full strength, Jordan Clarkson and Tyler Kolek are both firmly out of Brown’s rotation.
Neither played in Tuesday’s win, the second straight DNP for each of them.
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