Karl-Anthony Towns wanted a heat check.<\/p>\n
He didn\u2019t hesitate after receiving a pass from Mikal Bridges, launching a deep 3-pointer from 31 feet. <\/p>\n
He turned to the crowd to celebrate before it went through the net, bringing fans to a crescendo. <\/p>\n
Having hit a 3-pointer on the possession before and two free throws on the possession after, it was part of a personal 8-0 run near the end of the second quarter.<\/p>\n
In the fourth quarter, Landry Shamet wanted a heat check of his own. <\/p>\n
Karl-Anthony Towns reacts after hitting a shot during the Knicks\u2019 Nov. 14 win against the Heat. Jason Szenes for the NY Post<\/p>\n
He drove to the rim, hit a layup and flexed to the crowd in celebration, part of a personal 4-0 run. <\/p>\n
Then, his 3-pointer with 3:09 left in the game gave the Knicks a 14-point lead and all but sealed the win.<\/p>\n
As he took free throws the next time down the floor, he was serenaded with chants of his name.<\/p>\n
It didn\u2019t matter that they were without Jalen Brunson, who was unavailable due to a sprained ankle. <\/p>\n
Didn\u2019t matter that they got served another gut punch when OG Anunoby exited and was quickly ruled out with a hamstring strain in the first quarter. <\/p>\n
On this night, Towns and Shamet resembled Kobe and Shaq.<\/p>\n
Towns erupted for a season-high 39 points and Shamet exploded for a career-high 36 as the Knicks beat the Heat 140-132 on Friday night at Madison Square Garden to improve to 8-4 on the season and 1-1 in the NBA Cup.<\/p>\n
This showed guts.<\/p>\n
Beyond guts, this showed Towns is still more than capable of carrying the scoring load. <\/p>\n
Landry Shamet defends during the Knicks\u2019 Nov. 14 win against the Heat. Jason Szenes for the NY Post<\/p>\n
Showed just how valuable Shamet and Jordan Clarkson are as bench pieces and just how deep this Knicks roster is. <\/p>\n
Showed an ability to adapt.<\/p>\n
Thirty-one of Towns\u2019 points came in the first half. <\/p>\n
Then the Knicks\u2019 depth shined, as 30 of Shamet\u2019s points came in the second half. <\/p>\n
Josh Hart attempts a shot during the Knicks\u2019 Nov. 14 win against the Heat. Jason Szenes for the NY Post<\/p>\n
And Shamet, primarily a spot-up shooter, was much more aggressive looking for his shot off the dribble as a slasher attacking the rim.<\/p>\n
Clarkson poured in a season-high 24 off the bench.<\/p>\n
Without Brunson, Miles McBride and Josh Hart took over the bulk of the point guard and ball-handling duties. <\/p>\n
Hart finished with a triple-double, recording 12 points, 12 rebounds and 10 assists, while McBride had nine points and four assists. <\/p>\n
Hart pump-faked and hit a turnaround fadeaway to beat the buzzer at the end of the second quarter, sending the Knicks into halftime with a 10-point lead.<\/p>\n
Mitchell Robinson was in foul trouble all night, but still somehow hauled in eight offensive rebounds. <\/p>\n
Two of those came in the fourth quarter and were key to the Knicks pulling away. <\/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
He has become unstoppable on the glass.<\/p>\n
Bridges, though he was quiet offensively, was active on defense with seven steals and two blocks.<\/p>\n
After taking a 64-62 lead with 2:53 left in the second quarter, the Knicks led the rest of the way. <\/p>\n
In the fourth quarter, Hart led a fast break, found a cutting Clarkson, who kicked it out to Shamet behind the arc, who swung it to Bridges for an emphatic 3-pointer. <\/p>\n
It capped off a 10-0 run that gave the Knicks a 14-point lead with 9:29 left in the game, and was emblematic of the team\u2019s all-around effort.<\/p>\n
There was something from everyone.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Karl-Anthony Towns wanted a heat check. He didn\u2019t hesitate after receiving a pass from Mikal Bridges, launching a…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":40279,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[1555,7046,1263,21,9,11,1104,10,319],"class_list":{"0":"post-40278","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-new-york","8":"tag-karl-anthony-towns","9":"tag-landry-shamet","10":"tag-miami-heat","11":"tag-nba","12":"tag-new-york","13":"tag-new-york-headlines","14":"tag-new-york-knicks","15":"tag-new-york-news","16":"tag-sports"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/40278","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=40278"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/40278\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/40279"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=40278"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=40278"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=40278"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}