Karl-Anthony Towns has been in the zone before. Forty-four in a half against Charlotte. Thirty-two in a quarter against San Antonio. Those nights, he says, are when everything goes numb.

“You just kinda lose perspective of life. You don’t feel nothing,” Towns said. “You just shoot the ball and it goes in.”

He insisted Friday’s performance didn’t rise to that level. It sure looked like it.

Towns dropped 39 points on 13-of-26 shooting to power the Knicks (8-3) to a 140-132 NBA Cup win over the Miami Heat at Madison Square Garden. Thirty-one of those came in the first half, where he scorched Miami from every level of the floor.

“I was just being super aggressive. In the first half, I got a lot of opportunities with the ball in my hands and just wanted to capitalize,” Towns said at his locker. “Even when I missed, my teammates did a great job of getting the offensive rebound and getting it back to me, trusting me to shoot a two-for-one, and I was glad I was repaying that trust with actual makes.”

That blueprint was by design. Once Jalen Brunson was ruled out — a Grade 1 ankle sprain suffered late in Wednesday’s loss to Orlando, leaving the Garden on crutches and in a boot — the Knicks needed Towns to carry the offense. And according to head coach Mike Brown, it was assistant coach Rick Brunson who refused to let them drift from the plan.

“We wanted to play through {KAT],” Brown said. “Rick Brunson was the first one to say it. He was like, ‘Hey, keep playing through KAT. Keep playing through KAT. Keep playing through KAT.’

“We didn’t come down and just call a play and go through him, but we did it naturally through our stuff. We didn’t hunt mismatches. We just did it naturally through our early offense a lot of times.”

Towns could have chased a historic night — 50, 60, maybe more. His résumé includes two 60-point games, a 56-point masterpiece, and 15 career 40-point nights. He knows how easily hunting numbers can torpedo a game, especially with Brunson and OG Anunoby (hamstring) both out in the second half.

“I wanted to do my best to pick up the offense that he gives our team, and in the first half, I did a good job of that,” Towns said. “In the second half, I wasn’t trying to force it. I’ve had those days … I don’t want to force trying to get 60 and lose the game. That’s the most important thing: To win the game.”

He scored just eight points after halftime — but his early barrage changed the entire geometry of the floor, and Landry Shamet did the rest. Shamet exploded for a 30-point second half, becoming one of several beneficiaries of the defensive attention Towns commanded.

“You’ve got to give KAT a lot of credit because he didn’t try to fight the double team,” Brown said. “He baited it, stretching the defense, stretching the two and then our guys spaced the floor really well and he got the ball out of the double team and was able to make great plays.”

“When KAT’s aggressive like that and has things flowing for him early … good luck,” Shamet added. “Him doing that opens up so much for us. Just his gravity … when it’s going for him, it helps so much.”

Josh Hart, naturally, started with the jab before offering the praise.

“I saw him miss a free throw that would have given him 40,” Hart said. “So that’s all that really mattered.”

Moments later, he got serious.

“It’s huge because obviously he commands so much of a gravity defensively. So when he’s able to obviously knock down shots and then hit a delay off the dribble, then when they throw two at him, he’s able to play-make,” Hart said — before another jab. “I would love him to keep two hands on the basketball and stop trying to act like Michael Jordan. But that’s huge because obviously he has good vision and is a good passer.”

Hart said the Knicks didn’t call Towns’ number directly; he simply took advantage of what the game gave him. Eighteen in the first quarter, 31 by halftime, 11-of-16 from the field, 6-of-10 from deep.

“No, I think he got going. He hit a couple of threes, couple of tough threes, and it was one of those games for him,” Hart said. “Obviously he’s a huge part of what we’re doing offensively. When he’s able to knock down shots like that he’s impossible to guard.”

The Knicks improved to 1-1 in group play after dropping their In-Season Tournament opener to Chicago. They’ll see Miami again on Monday in South Florida to open a three-game road trip before returning Tuesday for a meeting with the Nets at Barclays Center.

https://www.nydailynews.com/2025/11/14/knicks-karl-anthony-towns-heat-nba-landry-shamet/