Karl-Anthony Towns’ brilliant play continues as Knicks rout Wizards

The Knicks were in the process of finishing the first half poorly, having seen a nine-point lead turn into a four-point deficit in just over two minutes.

But after OG Anunoby drilled a 3-pointer and the Knicks got a stop on the other end, Josh Hart raced the ball up the court. He found Karl-Anthony Towns, who pump-faked, drilled a deep 3-pointer and was knocked down and fouled by Alex Sarr in the process with 0.4 seconds left in the half. He celebrated while still on the ground as the Madison Square Garden crowd rose to its feet. After making the free throw to complete the emphatic four-point play, Towns sent the Knicks into halftime with a three-point lead.

Towns finished with a game-high — and personal season-high — 33 points as the Knicks beat the lowly Wizards 119-102 on Monday night at MSG to improve to 4-3 on the season. The win also moved the Knicks to a perfect 4-0 at home.

“KAT was a monster,” coach Mike Brown said. “He was a monster on the glass, he was really good defensively, he was a monster inside, outside. He’s starting to feel and find his rhythm in what we’re trying to do. I’m telling you, there’s a lot of room there to grow, not just for him but for us around him.

“We had a stretch where we couldn’t score. That’s what All-Stars do — they carry the load for you offensively, and he did a great job with that tonight. As you guys can see, trying to move him around won’t allow teams to tee off on him. The learning curve is still big for him, for me and for us in terms of trying to move him around and put him in different spots, but every game, every practice, every shootaround, he’s getting more comfortable with it, as you can see.”

It was just one week ago that Towns had a nightmare showing in a loss to the Bucks in Milwaukee. In what might’ve been his worst performance with the Knicks, he scored just eight points — his lowest output with the team — on brutal 2-for-12 shooting from the field. He looked like a square peg in a round hole in Brown’s new system, and the Knicks were in the middle of an early three-game skid.

But Towns responded brilliantly during the Knicks’ first back-to-back of the season, and as a result the Knicks won both — the first leg over the Bulls on Sunday — to reignite their season and the Brown era. Towns had 20 points on an efficient 11 shots along with 12 rebounds, five assists and two blocks in that win over Bulls.

He was more aggressive Monday, though still efficient, shooting 12-for-24 from the field while also adding 13 rebounds and five assists.

“Just saw opportunities to get some good shots up and be aggressive,” Towns said. “I just wanted to take advantage of the opportunity. [Jalen Brunson] requires a lot of attention, took what the defense gave us and tonight I saw that I had an opportunity.”

The Knicks were a bit fortunate as well. They came out slow, started lax on defense and settled often on offense in the first quarter. They finished the quarter down by eight points, allowing the Wizards to shoot 72.2 percent from the field. The effects of a back-to-back seemed to be getting to them. The Wizards lead grew to 10 points early in the second quarter.

Better teams than them could have buried the Knicks or built a bigger lead, like what happened during the losing streak. But Washington, now 1-6 on the year, will likely be one of the NBA’s bottom-feeders throughout the year. Just a bit more effort allowed the Knicks to separate themselves.

That talent discrepancy was evident in the third quarter, when the Knicks outscored the Wizards by 17 points and turned the game into a rout.

Brunson and Anunoby got going in the second half, finishing with 16 points apiece. Jordan Clarkson was a difference-maker off the bench for the second straight night, finishing with 15 points. Hart, who is battling both a finger and ankle injury, finished with 10 points, 10 rebounds and five assists and appears to have put his early-season woes behind him.

“I think we were just locked in [the second half],” Hart said. “We were protecting the paint. We gave up a lot of weakside rolls, dunks, stuff like that [in the first half]. So we just kind of cleaned it up and then got stops and got going.”

The Knicks passed their first back-to-back test, Towns looks like he is back to his All-NBA form and the concerns about Brown’s system have lowered in volume.

Not a bad way to start a home stand.