showed out in the Shooting Stars Challenge<\/a>, they had a night to forget.<\/p>\nJalen Brunson\u2019s USA Stripes side lost in the final, while Karl-Anthony Towns\u2019 Team World lost both the games they played.<\/p>\n
Brunson was passive in the normally shot-happy games, while Towns\u2019 biggest impact was negative.<\/p>\n
When the first game, between Team World and the USA Stars, went to overtime \u2014 which was decided by the first to a target score of five points \u2014 he airballed on Team World\u2019s first possession. <\/p>\n
Jalen Brunson drives to the basket during the NBA All-Star Game Feb. 15. NBAE via Getty Images<\/p>\n
Then, when the World took a 3-2 lead, he inexplicably helped defensively on a pass to Jalen Duren, leaving his man \u2014 Scottie Barnes \u2014 wide open behind the arc. <\/p>\n
Barnes drilled the 3-pointer, sealing the win for the Stars.<\/p>\n
\u201cI would\u2019ve expected us to be smarter right here,\u201d Victor Wembanyama said. \u201cSo that was disappointing.\u201d<\/p>\n
Wembanyama, who had set an early tone for the competitive level with his effort, put his hands on his head in frustration at the mistake. <\/p>\n
A 2-pointer wouldn\u2019t have been a terrible result \u2014 a 3-pointer meant a loss for Team World. <\/p>\n
And Towns left his man to help on a 2-pointer, leaving his man open for a trey.<\/p>\n
Karl-Anthony Towns controls the ball during the NBA All-Star Game on Feb. 15. IMAGN IMAGES via Reuters Connect<\/p>\n
\u201cComing down to defense, especially down the stretch,\u201d Norman Powell said afterward about the sequence. \u201cWhen we\u2019re up three, not giving up a 3-pointer to tie the game. It\u2019s gonna be the attention to detail, it\u2019s on defense, if we\u2019re gonna compete on every single possession.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cThat feels like a pretty real answer,\u201d said Noah Eagle, NBC\u2019s lead play-by-play announcer.<\/p>\n
Towns finished with 10 points in that game, second-most behind Wembanyama. <\/p>\n
Then in Team World\u2019s second game, against Brunson\u2019s Team Stripes, he scored six points.<\/p>\n
Midway through that third game, Brunson and Towns began guarding each other. <\/p>\n
Towns drilled a 28-foot 3-pointer, then Brunson picked him up on the other end.<\/p>\n
\u201cI knew no matter what shot I shot, the ball was going in,\u201d Brunson said of matching up with Towns. \u201cWhenever KAT\u2019s guarding me, I know what\u2019s gonna happen.\u201d<\/p>\n
Jalen Brunson drives to the basket as Karl-Anthony Towns defends during the NBA All-Star Game on Feb. 15. Imagn Images<\/p>\n
But it certainly wasn\u2019t a Knicks-centric show.<\/p>\n
Towns\u2019 Team World lost in their second game, meaning he was done for the night. <\/p>\n
Brunson played in three games \u2014 his Stripes side beat the Stars in their first game, beat the World in their second game but were blown out by the Stars in the final.<\/p>\n
Brunson took a back seat to his All-Star brethren, scoring a total of 13 points on 7-for-9 shooting between his three games.<\/p>\n
\t\t\t\t\t\t\tWhat\u2019s happening on and off the Garden court\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n
\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\tSign up for Inside the Knicks by Stefan Bondy, a weekly exclusive on Sports+.\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n
\t\t\t\t\t\tThank you\n\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n
It was ironic; Towns, whose foul complaints often go unheard in regular games, found a pair of rare free throws in the first of the usually foul-free All-Star games.<\/p>\n
He was fouled by Barnes during the USA Stars vs. Team World game and hit both free throws. <\/p>\n
A few minutes later, he drilled a 39-foot 3-pointer.<\/p>\n
Later in that game, he was most at fault for the loss.<\/p>\n
For one night, he wasn\u2019t the Knicks\u2019 headache.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"If one didn\u2019t know better, it would be hard to tell the Knicks were involved in the four…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":134899,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[4777,1555,21,41287,9,11,1104,10,319],"class_list":["post-134898","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-new-york","tag-jalen-brunson","tag-karl-anthony-towns","tag-nba","tag-nba-all-star-game","tag-new-york","tag-new-york-headlines","tag-new-york-knicks","tag-new-york-news","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/134898","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=134898"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/134898\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/134899"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=134898"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=134898"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=134898"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}