If one didn’t know better, it would be hard to tell the Knicks were involved in the four All-Star games Sunday.
Actually, the only noticeable impact was negative.
A day after the Knicks showed out in the Shooting Stars Challenge, they had a night to forget.
Jalen Brunson’s USA Stripes side lost in the final, while Karl-Anthony Towns’ Team World lost both the games they played.
Brunson was passive in the normally shot-happy games, while Towns’ biggest impact was negative.
When the first game, between Team World and the USA Stars, went to overtime — which was decided by the first to a target score of five points — he airballed on Team World’s first possession.
Then, when the World took a 3-2 lead, he inexplicably helped defensively on a pass to Jalen Duren, leaving his man — Scottie Barnes — wide open behind the arc.
Barnes drilled the 3-pointer, sealing the win for the Stars.
“I would’ve expected us to be smarter right here,” Victor Wembanyama said. “So that was disappointing.”
Wembanyama, who had set an early tone for the competitive level with his effort, put his hands on his head in frustration at the mistake.
A 2-pointer wouldn’t have been a terrible result — a 3-pointer meant a loss for Team World.
And Towns left his man to help on a 2-pointer, leaving his man open for a trey.
“Coming down to defense, especially down the stretch,” Norman Powell said afterward about the sequence. “When we’re up three, not giving up a 3-pointer to tie the game. It’s gonna be the attention to detail, it’s on defense, if we’re gonna compete on every single possession.”
“That feels like a pretty real answer,” said Noah Eagle, NBC’s lead play-by-play announcer.
Towns finished with 10 points in that game, second-most behind Wembanyama.
Then in Team World’s second game, against Brunson’s Team Stripes, he scored six points.
Midway through that third game, Brunson and Towns began guarding each other.
Towns drilled a 28-foot 3-pointer, then Brunson picked him up on the other end.
“I knew no matter what shot I shot, the ball was going in,” Brunson said of matching up with Towns. “Whenever KAT’s guarding me, I know what’s gonna happen.”
But it certainly wasn’t a Knicks-centric show.
Towns’ Team World lost in their second game, meaning he was done for the night.
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Brunson played in three games — his Stripes side beat the Stars in their first game, beat the World in their second game but were blown out by the Stars in the final.
Brunson took a back seat to his All-Star brethren, scoring a total of 13 points on 7-for-9 shooting between his three games.
It was ironic; Towns, whose foul complaints often go unheard in regular games, found a pair of rare free throws in the first of the usually foul-free All-Star games.
He was fouled by Barnes during the USA Stars vs. Team World game and hit both free throws.
A few minutes later, he drilled a 39-foot 3-pointer.
Later in that game, he was most at fault for the loss.
For one night, he wasn’t the Knicks’ headache.