because of an ankle sprain<\/a>, Towns was in the spotlight and played well in the first half. But he fell into foul trouble and pulled a Houdini after the break with foul trouble and just 6 of his 17 points in the second half.<\/p>\nThe Knicks (25-16), meanwhile, disappeared with him. They lost for the seventh time in their last nine games, ending their Western Conference road trip with two duds in Northern California.<\/p>\n
Karl-Anthony Towns looks to make a move on Draymond Green during the Knicks\u2019 126-113 road loss to the Warriors on Jan. 15, 2025. The two veterans also had another chippy exchange in this one. D. Ross Cameron-Imagn Images<\/p>\n
Steph Curry led the Warriors (23-19) with 27 points while Green played the familiar role of antagonist. After the final buzzer, Green and Towns exchanged tense words that ended with Green\u2019s skipping.<\/p>\n
Asked about his back-and-forth with Green, Towns responded, \u201cAin\u2019t no relevance in my life. I\u2019m good.\u201d<\/p>\n
Green, a notorious bully, was reverential to his opponent in retrospect.<\/p>\n
\u201cI don\u2019t want to give my secrets away, but I do like the matchup,\u201d Green said. \u201cBut I do like playing against all the perennial all-stars and stars in this league. I enjoy those matchups, Those are the matchups that really get me going. It\u2019s an honor. It\u2019s an honor to play against a guy like Karl Towns. Make no mistake, Karl Towns is one of the better big mans in this league. I cherish that. I know I go out there and talk my junk and I stir the pot a little bit, for sure. But the respect I have for talents like that, for guys who has done it, what, 10, 11 years at a very high level.<\/p>\n
\u201cBut when you step in between those lines there\u2019s no time for that. It\u2019s time to compete. It\u2019s time for me to try to get the better of you because you\u2019re going to try to get the better of me. And that is one guy in the league that brings out the best in me and I\u2019m always grateful for the opportunity.\u201d<\/p>\n
Mikal Bridges drives to the basket during Knicks\u2019 road loss to the Warriors. NBAE via Getty Images<\/p>\n
It felt like a copy of last year in Golden State, when the backdrop was Green accusing Towns of skipping a game at MSG to avoid facing another nemesis, Jimmy Butler. In reality, Towns missed that contest to attend a funeral. Then Green and Towns engaged in trash talk when they played each other in Golden State.<\/p>\n
That basically happened again Thursday \u2014 without the Jimmy Butler angle \u2014 after things turned chippy in the fourth quarter.<\/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
With 11:01 left, Green picked up a flagrant foul after he grabbed Towns\u2019 leg as the Knicks center drove. Towns missed the second free throw and Green, the bully, skipped with joy.<\/p>\n
Towns\u2019s subsequent foul on Brandin Podziemski was reviewed for a flagrant but didn\u2019t meet the criteria. On another play, OG Anunoby\u2019s face was bloodied after a loose ball foul from Podziemski.<\/p>\n
Josh Hart shoots a 3-pointer during the Knicks\u2019 road loss to the Warriors. NBAE via Getty Images<\/p>\n
\u201cI thought we played good in stretches,\u201d Knicks coach Mike Brown said. \u201cOur level, our competitiveness was there throughout the game. The biggest thing was I thought their level of physicality was there longer than ours was, and you could feel it throughout the course of the game.\u201d<\/p>\n
The defeat wrapped up a dreary road trip, with the Knicks going 1-3 against their Western Conference foes.<\/p>\n
It didn\u2019t start so ugly Thursday for the Knicks, who stormed out to a 17-point lead in the first quarter.<\/p>\n
Miles McBride drives on Draymond Green during the Knicks\u2019 road loss to the Warriors. NBAE via Getty Images<\/p>\n
But that dissolved quickly as Curry awakened in the third quarter, pushing New York\u2019s deficit to double-digits.<\/p>\n
The visitors never recovered and the Knicks hit the halfway mark of their season at a low point, with Draymond skipping and Towns upset.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s a learning process for all of us and we\u2019re just still adjusting and getting used to a new system. Especially me,\u201d Towns said. \u201cJust trying to understand our new roles and what we can do to impact the game for winning. Different year, different scheme. So we\u2019re all adjusting to help our team have a chance to win everyday.\u201d <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"SAN FRANCISCO \u2014 The night ended with Karl-Anthony Towns frustrated and taunted by his longtime antagonist, Draymond Green,…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":540524,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3724],"tags":[7,164,288,6,191,66,573],"class_list":{"0":"post-540523","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-basketball","8":"tag-basketball","9":"tag-golden-state-warriors","10":"tag-jalen-brunson","11":"tag-nba","12":"tag-new-york-knicks","13":"tag-sports","14":"tag-stephen-curry"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nba\/115904662995457478","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/540523","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=540523"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/540523\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/540524"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=540523"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=540523"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=540523"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}