Karl-Anthony Towns misses Knicks’ rivalry win with knee injury: ‘Wasn’t comfortable enough’
The Knicks had to use a different starting lineup for the first time this season.
Karl-Anthony Towns did not play in Friday’s 124-122 win over the Nets because of a contused left knee, an injury he picked up toward the end of Wednesday’s heartbreaking loss to the Bulls.
Towns knocked legs with Chicago’s Zach LaVine.
He limped through a couple of possessions, grimacing in pain, but never checked out.
He was listed as questionable before being ruled out on the same day as his 29th birthday.
“He went through shootaround and he went through his warm up. And then he just wasn’t comfortable enough,” Tom Thibodeau said. “So hopefully tomorrow he’ll get a day of rest and that will be good for him. Same thing with [Miles McBride].”
Towns was joined on the inactive list by McBride, who was also a late scratch due to an illness.
The Knicks face the Nets again at MSG on Sunday.
Towns’ availability has been a question in recent campaigns, with the center failing to play more than 62 games in four of the last five seasons with the Timberwolves.
Jericho Sims took his lineup spot at center with Precious Achiuwa missing his 12th straight game with a strained hamstring.
McBride has also been dealing with knee soreness.
Cam Payne, who returned from a hamstring strain earlier this week, played a bigger role off the bench but missed clutch shots in the fourth quarter.
Achiuwa is nearing the four-week mark of a hamstring strain that was originally announced as 2-4 weeks before a reevaluation.
But apparently there have been daily reevaluations and he still hasn’t been cleared for practice.
“He’s reevaluated every day,” Thibodeau said. “So yes, he has been reevaluated. The depth of it, I’m not sure. I know they’ve increased his activity. I think that part is good. With the hamstring, we just want to make sure it’s not a problem that will linger.”
Rookie Pacome Dadiet, the Knicks’ first first-round pick in three years, returned to the rotation because of the injuries and contributed five points in 12 minutes.
Assistant coach Rick Brunson preached patience with the teenaged rookie.
“If you take a young kid like [Dadiet], the guy we just drafted,” Brunson said on the “Roommates Show,” hosted by his son, Jalen. “You take him. To me, you got to give him a window. A college window. Four to five years. You can’t give up on a kid who is going through his college years in the NBA.”