nba finals NBA New York Knicks Karl-Anthony Towns’ mic’d-up moment shows how Knicks survived Game 1 By Collin Ward Published June 4, 2026, 3:26 p.m. ET See more of our coverage in your search results.
Add The New York Post on Google Karl-Anthony Towns can see the future.
In Game 1 of the Knicks-Spurs NBA Finals series, Towns was caught telling teammates to keep playing great defense and that the offense will pick up eventually.
“We gotta keep playing defense this way. This will win us the game,” Towns said. “Our offense will always catch up. It did in Game 1 in Cleveland. We’ll be fine.”
Towns was referring to the first game of the Eastern Conference Finals in which the Knicks came back from a 22-point deficit in the fourth quarter against the Cavaliers to win in overtime.
In a less extreme, but still impressive fashion, Towns and the Knicks made a 14-point comeback in the first game of the NBA Finals on Wednesday to win 105-95.
According to ESPN Analytics, they had as little as a 7.4% chance of winning at one point.
Tasked with stopping Victor Wembanyama, Towns rose to the occasion in Game 1 with 18 points, 12 rebounds and four assists.
New York Knicks center Karl-Anthony Towns (32) yells during the second half of Game 1 of the NBA Finals against the San Antonio Spurs. AP Photo/Eric Gay In the 34 minutes the big man was on the court, the Knicks outscored the Spurs by 11 points.
“I don’t know what it was. But I just felt a calm and a peace that I don’t know, had to be coming from the woman above,” he said in an on-court interview after the game.
Towns was referring to his late mother, Jacqueline Cruz-Towns, who died in April 2020.
“In a way I felt like I was seeing her in the stands,” he said.
Karl-Anthony Towns #32 of the New York Knicks drives to the basket during the game against the San Antonio Spurs during Game One of the 2026 NBA Finals. NBAE via Getty Images Towns has been waiting his whole career to play in the NBA Finals, falling in the conference finals the past two seasons.
The former Timberwolves star recorded 10 points, including two 3-pointers, four rebounds and a block in the third quarter as the Knicks began their comeback.
Own this piece of history with our cover celebrating the Knicks sweep over the Cavs.
Show the boys some love as they face off against the Spurs to take the championship.
After 27 years, we’re back in the finals. Immortalize this moment.
No matter what happens from here, we made it, and nobody can take that away.
Bonkers feels like the only appropriate word to describe this season.
“You just trust your work and you trust your decision-making, and I always say [I want to be] aggressive in play-making,” Towns said.
