SAN ANTONIO — If the vote took place after two games, Karl-Anthony Towns would be the NBA Finals MVP. It’s not just me saying that. “The MVP of the Finals is gonna be Karl-Anthony Towns. That man earned his flowers,” Charles Barkley said on Inside the NBA Friday night. That nod to Towns is with all due respect to Jalen Brunson, who has lived up to the Captain Clutch nickname in two straight games. It’s with all due respect to Mikal Bridges, who has played
his best basketball in the Finals. Without Towns playing at this level, New York is down 0-2 in this series. Towns scored a team-high 21 points with 13 rebounds on Friday night, but his counting stats don’t do his impact in this series justice. His physical defense on Wembanyama has kept the Spurs star off balance and in relative check for most of the first two games. On the other end of the court, Towns is a matchup nightmare because he can bully his way
to the rim for a bucket or knock down a jumper. His threat as a 3-point shooter who must be accounted for has pulled Wemby out of the paint — opening the path for Knicks drives and offensive rebounds in a way the Thunder or no other team has been able to against the Spurs. “He’s been great. I think he’s been pretty phenomenal on both sides of the ball,” Jalen Brunson said of Towns’ effort. “The things he’s been able to do throughout this
entire playoffs but obviously here now, he’s been great. ” Then Brunson threw out the line that defines these Knicks this postseason: “But we need more.” “I think he’s made some shots and he’s a really good player. ” Spurs coach Mitch Johnson said. “He played two good games. We have to make it tougher on him. We’ve had some coverage breakdowns.” Towns’ Journey wasn’t smooth The Timberwolves traded Towns to New York in a deal that was far more about Minnesota’s salary cap outlook
than production on the court. However, there also were persistent questions around the Timberwolves about whether Towns was enough alongside Anthony Edwards to get the team over the hump. It’s because of those years that Towns relates to what the Spurs are going through in these Finals, but the hard lessons he learned then are paying off now. “I have been on the other side where you’re a young team and you’re trying to do a lot to win the game, and I think that
for us, we keep leaning on experience and we keep leaning on the word ‘execution,’” Towns said. Towns’ play in New York has not been consistent over the past two years — there are times it has felt he is not doing enough, and there are times when it feels like he is trying to do too much. Rarely has it felt like a natural fit. Mike Brown seemed like a coach who could change that — his style of play should have been a
hand-in-glove fit with Towns. It was not. Or at least not instantly. It took most of the season, and even into the playoffs, for Towns and Brown to find a balance in the offense that worked for both. “I came in with a great plan. Maybe the plan doesn’t work. Who adjusts, him or me? Me. I adjust,” Brown said of how the season went with Towns. “The adjustment’s not enough. Every once in a while we’re not on the same page. We talk about
it. We talk about it. I adjust again. A little bit better. He’s feeling good. We talk about it. We talk — maybe we take a couple of steps backwards because what I did, he doesn’t like, which is fine. “And we finally got to a point where he was comfortable, I was comfortable, Jalen (Brunson) was comfortable, OG (Anunoby) was comfortable, Mikal (Bridges) was comfortable, and to me that’s what the regular season is about. The regular season is about finding your way so
you can prepare for this time of the year.” Towns looks prepared. He looks like a Finals MVP. And, in what matters most to Towns himself, he looks like an NBA champion.
Karl-Anthony Towns, Victor Wembanyama, Knicks, Spurs, NBA Finals, Jalen Brunson, Mitch Johnson, Mike Brown, Mikal Bridges, OG Anunoby