If you didn’t know any better, there was hardly any way to tell that the Knicks were involved in the four All-Star games on Sunday.
In fact, the only noticeable effect was negative.
A day after the Knicks appeared in the Shooting Stars Challenge, they had a night to forget.
Jalen Brunson’s USA Stripes squad lost in the finals, while Karl-Anthony Towns’ Team World lost both matches.
Brunson was passive in the normally upbeat matches, while Towns’ biggest impact was negative.
When the first game, between Towns’ Team World and Team Stars, went into overtime – decided by the former to a five-point goal score – he airballed on Team World’s first possession.
As the World Series took a 3-2 lead, he inexplicably assisted defensively on a pass to Jalen Duren, leaving his man – Scottie Barnes – wide open behind the arc.
Barnes scored the three-pointer to seal the win for the Stars.
Victor Wembanyama, who had set the tone for the competitive level early 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 assist on a 2-pointer, leaving his man open for a trey.
“It’s about defense, especially down the stretch,” Norman Powell said of the series afterward. “If we’re up three and don’t give up a three-pointer to tie the game. It’s going to be the attention to detail, it’s about the defense, if we want to compete on every possession.”
“That feels like a pretty real answer,” said Noah Eagle, NBC’s chief play-by-play announcer.
Towns finished with 10 points in that game, which ranked second 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 started guarding each other.
Towns drilled a 3-pointer from 28 feet, then Brunson picked it up at the other end.
But it certainly wasn’t a Knicks-centric show.
Towns’ Team World lost in the second match and that meant he was done for the night.
Brunson played in three games: his Stripes side defeated the Stars in their first game, defeated the World in their second game, but were then eliminated by the Stars in the final.
Brunson took a backseat 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 crude complaints often go unheard in regular-season games, found a pair of rare free throws in the first of the usually flawless All-Star games.
He was fouled by Barnes during the first quarter of the USA Stars vs. Team World and hit both free throws.
A few minutes later, he drilled a 3-pointer from 39 feet.
But later in that match he was most to blame for the loss.
For one night, he wasn’t the Knicks’ headache.
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