It appears that Karl-Anthony Towns and the New York Knicks have avoided a serious injury scare following a fourth-quarter issue during Saturday night’s loss to the Chicago Bulls.
The 29-year-old limped to the Knicks’ locker room with 1:36 remaining in the game after falling to the court upon converting an and-1 through Chicago’s Coby White and Nikola Vucevic. It was the final basket of another monster night in which he dropped 44 points.
“I got hit,” Towns said (h/t New York Post). “I was going to go for a dunk, saw [White] was probably not going to give it to me, and then I switched hands. Tried to do my best Michael Jordan impression.”
While neither he nor the team divulged the exact location of the injury, Towns admitted that the lower-body injury “hurt.”
“Really, all I saw was an and-1 that was too late to help us win,” Towns said. “Honest to Go, I didn’t even know I made it.”
Regardless, Towns was able to complete a postgame weightlifting session, which suggests there is no legitimate threat of a long-term issue. With New York playing on Monday against the Orlando Magic, the center labeled himself as his usual “day-to-day.”
Towns has lived up to the All-Star hype that surrounded him upon his summer acquisition from the Minnesota Timberwolves for Julius Randle and Donte DiVincenzo, and then some.
In his first 34 games with the Knicks, he is averaging 25.3 points and 14 rebounds per game, shooting 55% from the field and a career-best 44% from three-point range.
His 44 points on Saturday night fell two points short of his season-high, which came on Nov. 13, also against the Bulls. Towns has recorded at least 30 points in four of his last five games, averaging 30.8 points with 17.2 rebounds during that span.
He currently ranks third amongst all Eastern Conference frontcourt players in the 2025 NBA All-Star Game voting.
