{"id":704806,"date":"2026-04-08T07:24:32","date_gmt":"2026-04-08T07:24:32","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/704806\/"},"modified":"2026-04-08T07:24:32","modified_gmt":"2026-04-08T07:24:32","slug":"jalen-brunson-karl-anthony-towns-find-elusive-knicks-harmony-in-key-moment","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/704806\/","title":{"rendered":"Jalen Brunson, Karl-Anthony Towns find elusive Knicks harmony in key moment"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"An<\/p>\n

An image collage containing 2 images, Image 1 shows Jalen Brunson celebrates after hitting a shot during the Knicks’ win over the Hawks on April 7, 2026 in Atlanta, Image 2 shows Karl-Anthony Towns celebrates during the Knicks’ win over the Hawks on April 6, 2026 in Atlanta<\/p>\n

ATLANTA \u2014 There were only about 3 \u00b9\/\u2082 minutes remaining in a game that the Knicks felt they had to win to build momentum and confidence.<\/p>\n

They trailed the Hawks by five. They had just 92 points. They needed offense in a half-court set because the game had slowed down.<\/p>\n

Just like the playoffs.<\/p>\n

And they found something.<\/p>\n

Five times over their next six possessions \u2014 interrupted only by a transition bucket off a turnover \u2014 the Knicks ran the same play: Brunson brought up the ball and gave it to Karl-Anthony Towns, who was on the wing at the 3-point line with a defender pressuring him.<\/p>\n

The same spot every time.<\/p>\n

From there, options were abundant and, as it turned out, highly efficient.<\/p>\n

\"Jalen<\/p>\n

Jalen Brunson celebrates after hitting a shot during the Knicks\u2019 win over the Hawks on April 6, 2026 in Atlanta. NBAE via Getty Images<\/p>\n

Brunson twice hit runners in the lane off give-and-gos; KAT drew a foul after spinning around his draping defender; Brunson hit an open 3-pointer after a dribble handoff because his defender couldn\u2019t get around Towns.<\/p>\n

Half of Towns\u2019 six assists were collected in a 40-second stretch of crunch time. The Knicks went from down five to up two, eventually beating the Hawks 108-105<\/a> on Monday night.<\/p>\n

It became an example of two gifted offensive players \u2014 KAT and Brunson \u2014 working in harmony, rather than taking turns as they had for most of this campaign.<\/p>\n

\u201cI thought we did a great job [Monday] of utilizing it,\u201d Towns said. \u201cWhen the game got dicey, the coaching staff and our teammates leaned on us to have that two-man game show up when we needed it the most. And it worked.<\/p>\n

\"Karl-Anthony<\/p>\n

Karl-Anthony Towns celebrates during the Knicks\u2019 win over the Hawks on April 6, 2026 in Atlanta. Getty Images<\/p>\n

\u201cWe have a good rapport where I think that, what you saw at the end of the game with me and J.B., allows him not to have so much pressure on him and allows me to help him out and do what I do best \u2014 cause gravity, which allows him to get a step on a defender, and that\u2019s all he needs to score. It gave us a chance for him to play one-on-one and also get a step on the defender and give him some of the best looks of the night.\u201d<\/p>\n

Towns was giddy after Monday\u2019s win and clearly excited about the play calling. He and Brunson combined for 51 points and 19 assists, engaging more often with the pick-and-rolls that were always projected as key to producing a powerful offensive duo. It wasn\u2019t just down the stretch Monday.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s huge to know a guy like Jalen can shoot and score the way he does. On top of that, he\u2019s crafty. He\u2019s crafty with the ball, crafty without the ball,\u201d coach Mike Brown said. \u201cHaving KAT as a passer [makes it tougher on the opposition]. On top of that, KAT\u2019s a great shooter. So you put those two guys in space in a two-man game, and teams gotta make decisions. Both those guys came through.\u201d<\/p>\n

However, the Knicks have gotten away from that two-man game for much of this season. Perhaps not coincidentally, Brunson and Towns both produced down years statistically \u2014 especially Towns.<\/p>\n

Monday became a reminder of the possibilities with the playoffs around the corner.<\/p>\n

\u201cPlayoffs are going to come down to a possession game,\u201d Brunson said. \u201cIt\u2019s real important for us.\u201d<\/p>\n

With the Wizards losing to the Bulls 129-98 on Tuesday night, they will keep their protected first-round pick as they cannot fall past seventh in the draft order (the pick was top-eight protected).<\/p>\n

The Knicks will now get Washington\u2019s 2026 and 2027 second-round picks instead.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"An image collage containing 2 images, Image 1 shows Jalen Brunson celebrates after hitting a shot during the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":704807,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[3776],"tags":[676,208,3874,7,1591,677,563,28693,304,6],"class_list":{"0":"post-704806","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-atlanta-hawks","8":"tag-atlanta","9":"tag-atlanta-hawks","10":"tag-atlantahawks","11":"tag-basketball","12":"tag-brunson","13":"tag-hawks","14":"tag-karl-anthony-towns","15":"tag-kat","16":"tag-knicks","17":"tag-nba"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nba\/116367896475723805","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/704806","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=704806"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/704806\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/704807"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=704806"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=704806"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=704806"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}