Knicks Notes: Towns, Brunson, Anunoby, Alvarado

Following the Knicks‘ Game 3 loss to the Spurs, a worrying trend has been widely discussed: Karl-Anthony Towns‘s lack of fourth-quarter offense.

Towns has yet to score in a fourth quarter this series, despite playing some of the best basketball of his career and being the best player on the floor for large stretches of the series so far.

It’s a trend that head coach Mike Brown is aware of and unhappy with, according to ESPN’s Vincent Goodwill.

“It’s extremely important that he’s getting touches, that he’s involved, not just in the fourth quarter, but obviously throughout the ballgame,” Brown said. “I got to continue trying to do a better job of getting him involved throughout the course of the game, as well as late.”

The Knicks went to Towns less in Game 3, and the offense seemed to struggle as a result, a trend that three-time champion Danny Green broke down for ESPN (Twitter video link). Green noted that, unlike in previous games, Towns didn’t punish mismatches by taking smaller players into the post, and instead seemed to float at times.

While Victor Wembanyama‘s presence makes it more challenging, Green believes Towns needs to be more proactive and aggressive than he showed on Monday.

We have more Knicks notes:

• Jalen Brunson has been the Knicks’ best player for multiple years, but he has struggled this series against the Spurs’ defense, shooting just 37.0% from the field and accumulating the same amount of turnovers as assists (13). While the Knicks have weathered his cold shooting spell and still hold a 2-1 series lead, the most concerning stat is that the team is being outscored by 13 points in the 110 minutes Brunson has been on the floor, Dylan Svoboda writes for the New York Post. New York’s offense has at times seemed to flow better when Brunson is not on the floor, as they rely more on quick ball movement and shot-making and less on isolation play against the Spurs’ length and aggression. Despite his struggles, Brunson has scored at least 30 points in two of the three games, but most of his best play has come in brief fourth-quarter stretches, such as the end of Game 1.
• Aside from Brunson, OG Anunoby was the only other consistent source of offense in Game 3, scoring 28 points on 13 shots. He has been effective at scoring with Wembanyama in his face, whether on face-up three-pointers or drives to the rim. “I’m aggressive no matter who’s guarding me,” Anunoby said to NBA Insider Chris Haynes (Twitter video link). “I’m always looking to make the right play, whether it’s the pass, drive to the rim, the shot, just being aggressive at all times no matter who’s guarding me.”
• If there’s any player on the roster that puts the ‘New York’ in the ‘New York Knicks,’ it’s Brooklyn native Jose Alvarado, writes Jeanette Settembre for the Post. “Everything about him screams New York. He’s a lovable kid,” said high school coach Joe Arbitello. “He comes back [to Christ the King High School] a lot. I don’t think he understands he’s a celebrity celebrity.” Settembre interviews his youth league coach, Dan Klores, whom Alvarado turned to when he thought his dream was out of reach. “He comes to me and says, ‘Dan, can you connect me to a trainer? Because I’m not going to make the NBA,'” Klores said, adding that once the Pelicans offered him a spot, the point guard “broke down in tears. He couldn’t stop crying.”