CLEVELAND — Karl-Anthony Towns’ greatest weapon should be his outside shooting.
And through much of this struggling season, the problem for the 7-footer hasn’t been poor shot selection.
He’s just missing too much.
According to player tracking on NBA.com, the ratio of Towns’ open 3-pointers (when there’s no defender within four feet) is roughly the same as last season. Over 95 percent of his treys are open.
His attempts are a bit reduced — from 4.7 per game to 4.5 — which coach Mike Brown explained Sunday as being indicative of a deeper rotation and fewer minutes for Towns, along with the other starters.
But it’s tougher to explain Towns’ 3-point percentage falling from 42 percent last season to 36.5 percent this season — a year-to-year decline worse than any other in his career.
So while much of the debate has centered around Towns’ discomfort in the new system, the increasingly evident reality is he just needs to be a sharpshooter again.
Which is why it feels like Towns has turned it around lately.
In the past four games, Towns leads the Knicks in average scoring at 23.8 points while shooting an impressive 58.8 percent on treys. His 3-point attempts over the four games have been fewer than his season average, but he’s converting them at an elite clip and drawing praise.
He’s also played better defensively, winning Sunday’s defensive player of the game, which is awarded by Knicks coaches, after a 105–99 win over the Bulls.
It’s all related.
“Whenever you’re making shots and get plays called for you, you feel more involved, feel more in flow of the game,” Josh Hart said. “Sometimes for players that’s all you really need to get back on track. So he had energy making shots but also defensively he brought it. He did a good job today and just got to keep it up.”
It’s a rarity in the NBA — a showdown at near full strength.
Both the Knicks and Cavaliers had relatively clean injury reports for Tuesday’s game, with only the expected absences of New York’s Miles McBride (sports hernia surgery) and Cleveland’s Max Strus (foot surgery).
Mitchell Robinson returns for the Knicks after resting Sunday on the second night of a back-to-back.
The Cavs (36-22) are streaking since acquiring James Harden and are just one game behind the Knicks (37-21) for third in the East.
The Knicks already clinched the tiebreaker with two wins over the Cavs earlier this season — one in the opener, the other on Christmas.
