Karl-Anthony Towns does a little bit of everything in first Knicks playoff game

Karl-Anthony Towns has been under the microscope since his arrival to the Knicks before training camp. 

The trade for him was a signal to the team’s fan base and those around the league that New York was serious about making a deep playoff run. 

Expectations for the Knicks haven’t been this high in a while. 

But Towns, in a lot of ways, has lived up to his end of the bargain. 

Towns has played some of the best basketball of his career while in Knicks threads.

But with the regular season in the rearview mirror, this is the time for Towns to really take off to another level. 

Towns did what he needed to do in Saturday’s 123-112 Game 1 win against the Pistons. 

Towns did a little bit of everything to help aid in the Knicks’ fourth-quarter romp of Detroit that swayed the scales in favor of New York. 

He finished with 23 points, 11 rebounds, five assists, four steals and two blocks in 39 minutes. 

Securing the first win of the series was a step in the right direction for where the Knicks want to go this postseason.

But there’s still a lot of basketball left to be played. 

“Of course you want to be the one to throw the first punch, but it’s only one game,” Towns said. “We got to continue to execute at a high level, we got to continue to stay connected if we want to beat a great team. They’re not going to quit. They’re going to keep fighting, so we got to keep finding ways to execute at an even higher level the next game.” 

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Earlier this week, Pistons guard Malik Beasley confidently said he wasn’t “worried about KAT.” 

But Towns provided plenty of problems for the Pistons.

He flexed his size, strength and power on Detroit, especially in a 21-0 fourth-quarter romp that changed the game. 

He contested shots, swatting at the basketball like it was a fly. He corralled rebounds and forced the Pistons into mistakes. 

Perhaps most importantly, he gave the Pistons a reason to be worried moving forward. 

“There’s no doubt about it: What [Towns] can do offensively changes what you do defensively,” Pistons coach J.B. Bickerstaff said. “He has that impact on both sides of the ball. So again, we’ll watch the film and make adjustments on Monday.”