Karl-Anthony Towns’ performance that saved Knicks came thanks to Kyrie Irving 

DETROIT — With roughly 90 seconds remaining in one of those season-defining thrillers, Karl-Anthony Towns dribbled from the top of the key to the baseline. He was a good distance from the basket and outside the paint, often no-man’s-land for big men.

Towns, let’s face it, is neither the quickest nor most graceful with the ball. So him dribbling near a corner while hounded by a defender is suboptimal, a recipe for a turnover or failed attempt to draw a foul.

But it was out of that position Saturday when Towns picked up his dribble, generated momentum with a shake and unleashed a swishing fadeaway over Jalen Duren that cut Detroit’s deficit to 2. The Knicks, scratching back from a double-digit fourth-quarter deficit, were provided life from a seemingly dire back-to-the-basket possession.

You’d think Patrick Ewing, circa 1995, was wearing No. 32 in Little Caesars Arena.