Karl-Anthony Towns was listed as questionable for Sunday’s game against the Nets at the Garden after the center missed Friday’s win with a left knee contusion.
Towns underwent penalty shootouts and warmups before the game against the Nets before it was determined he wasn’t comfortable enough, according to Tom Thibodeau on Friday.
The injury occurred in a collision with Chicago’s Zach LaVine late in Wednesday’s home loss to the Bulls.
The Knicks hoped Saturday’s day off would give Towns enough time to be ready for Sunday.
The same was true with Miles McBride, Thibodeau said, after McBride was also out for that game with a left knee injury.
While Towns leads the Knicks in scoring (26.7) and rebounds (12.7), McBride has excelled as the team’s sixth man, averaging a career-high 10.7 points and 26 minutes. in his career, during his 11 games this season.
Precious Achiuwa remains out with a hamstring strain and will sit again on Sunday.
After Brooklyn’s Cam Thomas scored 43 points for the Nets Friday on 16-of-22 shooting, the Knicks credited the guard for his play.
On Sunday, they will have to face him again and will try to limit him to fewer than 19 points in the first quarter, which Thomas scored on Friday.
This is the second most points scored by a player in a single quarter since this statistic was tracked starting in 1996.
“He made some tough shots,” Thibodeau said. “It doesn’t need much to get started. He is a prolific scorer. If you give him space, he’s going to make shots, so you have to play him in a crowd. Some of them were well defended and he still has the ability to do [them].”
OG Anunoby said the Knicks could have done a better job.
“[He was] I just go off screens too freely and [we were] “I try to make it as difficult as possible to get past the screens to participate,” Anunoby said. “He’s a big player so he made some tough shots.”
Sunday will be the Knicks’ first game after being penalized for 21 team fouls – including a controversial technical foul on Anunoby – on Friday.
Afterward, Thibodeau criticized the officiating, saying, “We’ve been a low foul rate team for a long time.” I see what’s happening and I don’t like it. This can’t be the physicality displayed on Jalen [Brunson] when he brings the ball to the floor with the grab, the catch, all that. I don’t care what they call it. They can say it’s tight, they can say it’s loose, but it has to be the same for both teams.
The Knicks enter Sunday hoping to win back-to-back games for only the second time this season.
They beat the Heat and Pistons in back-to-back games on October 30 and November 1, but since then they are 3-4.
