Considering the role they are supposed to assume and the price the New York Knicks paid for them, Karl-Anthony Towns and Mikal Bridges were no-shows when it mattered most in Game 2 of their first-round series against the Detroit Pistons on Monday night at Madison Square Garden.
Hoping that lightning would strike twice in a major second-half comeback to take a 2-0 series lead, the All-Star big man in Towns did not take a single shot during the fourth quarter of what became a 100-94 loss to even the series.
He scored just 10 points on 11 shots.
“Just trying to have the game do what it does,” Towns said while trying to explain why he didn’t attempt a shot. “I thought we got some great shots, some great looks.”
Bridges, who scored 19 points, went 0-for-4 in the fourth quarter and did not record a single point, a considerable roadblock that undid the Knicks’ comeback hopes after they trailed by as much as 15.
He missed a catch-and-shoot three-pointer with four minutes left, which would have cut Detroit’s deficit to just three. Thirty seconds later and early in the shot clock, he opted to keep it himself and drive baseline for a reverse attempt that was stuffed.
Two possessions later, and with the Knicks down four, he missed a transition three. With 11 seconds left and his team down three, he missed a wide-open, game-tying three woefully short off the front rim.
“Straight up, I thought it was cash,” Bridges said. “But it was short… You want to win the game, you want to make that shot. It sucks, but nothing I can do about it now.”
That is nothing close to the sort of game-changing prowess they expected when they traded a haul of Julius Randle, Donte DiVincenzo, six first-round draft picks, and a pick swap for Towns and Bridges.
Jalen Brunson, who scored 37 points, simply cannot do it on his own. His supporting cast is too talented to have to even try and do that anymore. Towns and Bridges are a major part of that equation, and the reason why the Knicks will have any sort of success in the playoffs.
