Karl-Anthony Towns sat down with Scott Van Pelt on SportsCenter after one of the most improbable comebacks in recent Eastern Conference Finals history, the New York Knicks erasing a 22-point deficit and beating the Cleveland Cavaliers 121-110 in overtime at Madison Square Garden on Tuesday night.
Van Pelt asked the question every Knicks fan was screaming at the television in the third quarter: at what point did the team realistically start to believe they could win?
"The whole game. The whole game," Towns said. "If anyone watched us last year when we were in Boston, I feel everyone counted us out in those first two and we did exactly like this. So shout out to our team. The grit we showed, the resiliency we showed, and of course, Jaylen Brunson was special. Our team showed up defensively in the fourth and overtime, and that's how we're going to leave MSG tonight with a win."
The Knicks finished the game on a 44-11 run. They missed 20 of their first 24 shots. Jalen Brunson, who would finish with 39 points, scored 17 in the fourth quarter and overtime alone, repeatedly hunting James Harden in isolation and finishing 7-for-8 from the floor against him in those frames.
Towns leaned on the building when asked what made the deficit possible to claw back.
"Anyone who's been to the Garden could tell you when the crowd is in the game and you feel that energy, you feel unstoppable. Our fans are the best fans in the world. They give us so much energy, so much love," Towns said. "Whenever we're feeling like the game is getting away from us, our fans put us back in the game. I really truly feel the fans were the one that got us this win tonight. They gave us the energy to fight back and the motivation to get it done."
The simplest description of the fourth quarter, Van Pelt offered, was that Brunson was cooking and his teammates needed to clear the runway. Towns agreed without hesitation.
"Hell yeah. Exactly like you said. When he's playing that way and he's making points and buckets like that, I'm just blessed I get a front row seat to watch it."
The shot of the night, however, did not belong to the All-Star starters. Trailing by three with the game seemingly slipping again, Landry Shamet bounced in a corner three that crawled around the rim before settling - a moment that drew immediate comparisons to Tyrese Haliburton's series-flipping bucket in last year's playoffs, only this time the Knicks were on the right side of the bounce.
Towns was emphatic that Shamet's value went far beyond that shot.
"Landry Shamet was special today. He was so special. He's really the X-factor of the game tonight. He came in and played big minutes and hit some big shots," Towns said. "And honestly too, the shots were not even the story of the game. It was the stops he helped us get, the steals, the pressure he applied on defense to the team, to the Cavs. He was just special, and we needed this kind of game from Landry. We expected Landry to win tonight."
The city itself, Towns said, has been waiting for a moment like this.
"The city is alive. The city believes," he said. "As long as we keep giving the city something to believe in, sky's the limit. The city honestly - I'm just proud and honored that we're giving the city something to cheer for. We sacrifice every day. We put the work in, and for our fans to recognize the work we're putting in, to support us, to show us love, give us all the energy in the world, the motivation to get the job done every single night - it's special."
The Knicks now lead the Eastern Conference Finals 1-0. Game 2 is at the Garden on Friday night, with the Cavaliers trying to recover from a fourth-quarter collapse in which they made just 1 of their last 14 shots.
