NEW YORK — The good: The New York Knicks are finding ways to win games again.

The bad: The Knicks have been playing their best basketball with Karl-Anthony Towns glued to the bench.

Now winners of three straight, they followed up Saturday’s important victory over the Philadelphia 76ers with an uninspiring, 103-87 victory over the Sacramento Kings on Tuesday. The common theme between the differing performances? Towns wasn’t on the floor when New York gained control.

The Knicks weren’t 16 points better than lowly Sacramento on Tuesday, at least for the first 41-plus minutes. It was a back-and-forth contest filled with goofy turnovers and contagious fouling. The vibe inside Madison Square Garden was that New York was destined for another syrup-of-ipecac defeat.

That was before New York coach Mike Brown subbed out Towns with 6:51 left and just a 4-point lead. Brown rolled with a lineup of Jalen Brunson, Miles McBride, Mikal Bridges, OG Anunoby and Mitchell Robinson. That collective went on to close the game on a 21-9 run with smothering defense and clutch shot-making.

Towns, whom the organization traded for last offseason and viewed as the final piece to a championship roster, was on the sideline playing the role of supportive teammate.

“(Mike Brown) saw what he saw,” said Towns, who had 17 points on 5-for-15 shooting, 11 rebounds and was a team-worst minus-3. “We’ve got to win. That’s the most important thing. That’s all I care about, New York cares about, this team cares about — is wins.”

That’s true, but for the Knicks to be the best version of themselves, they need a different version of Towns than they’ve been getting — or they need someone else entirely.

The five-time All-Star’s efficiency across the board is at a career-low level. He has been unable to find a rhythm since Brown became coach. Throughout the discovery process, there’s been a lot of talk about Towns needing to acclimate to the new system or needing things to be altered to help him feel more settled. All of that is fine and, to a point, makes for acceptable excuses. However, more than halfway through the season, the truth is that Towns just isn’t putting the ball in the basket up to his capability, making it hard to justify him finishing games and, in the bigger picture, maximizing this group. His defense is what it is, the same as for most of his career. New York knew what it was signing up for when it traded for Towns.

The group Brown used to end the game Tuesday was perfect for Brunson. The All-NBA point guard was surrounded by four defenders who ranged from capable to good and are used to playing second fiddle offensively. It’s easier to cover up for one limited defender than it is two, and when the Knicks play Brunson and Towns together, it can be a challenge surrounding them with enough defense.

The Brunson-McBride-Bridges-Anunoby-Robinson lineup had played just north of 20 minutes together this season before Tuesday night and carried a net rating of 23.7. That’s not enough minutes to draw many conclusions, but it is good enough to give that lineup a whirl more frequently. If you substitute Josh Hart for McBride, the five-man unit has played 27 minutes together and has a net rating of 26.6. Again, not a huge sample size. But it’s clear that Brunson surrounded by four quality defenders is a recipe for success.

That’s why it wasn’t surprising to see the Knicks pull away late from the Kings on Tuesday, or to see them play their best basketball in the third quarter against Philadelphia when foul trouble forced Towns to sit.

a well balanced team win.

Jalen 28 PTS | 4 AST | 1 BLK
Mikal 18 PTS | 5 AST | 3 REB
KAT 17 PTS | 11 REB | 4 AST
OG 15 PTS | 2 REB | 2 STL
Mitch 7 PTS | 13 REB | 2 STL
Josh 7 PTS | 9 REB | 4 AST | 3 STL pic.twitter.com/sumYisKgby

— NEW YORK KNICKS (@nyknicks) January 28, 2026

“During the flow of the game, you find a group of players that you feel are playing well together, and you roll with it as long as you can,” Brown said Tuesday night. “It was a tight ballgame, so I just rolled with that group until the end of the game. I’ve done that before. … We needed to get the win. The biggest thing was that Mikal was at 37 (minutes), but everyone else was at decent minutes, especially knowing we have a game (today).”

New York has aspirations of winning an NBA championship this season. People might lose jobs or a major roster shake-up might follow if the Knicks come up short of a Finals appearance, which the owner expects at the very least. As the days go by, though, you really have to squint to see either outcome with this version of Towns. Maybe we blink and Towns finds himself again and all of this talk ends up being silly. Yet he’s been up and down for some time now. This isn’t a prisoner-of-the-moment situation. Something is off.

The trade deadline is coming up. Although New York’s decision-makers may be afraid to break up a core that made the Eastern Conference finals a season ago, or to rely more on the ankles of Robinson and a less talented big man than Towns, they have to strongly consider it at this point.

This just isn’t working — not as it was supposed to — and there’s been little reason to believe it will any time soon.