Karl-Anthony Towns Overcomes Injury to Be Knicks' Hero

There are far worse places to be than the present: while the Knicks are still down 3-2 in the series, which is heading back to Indianapolis on Saturday (8 p.m. ET, TNT), Towns no doubt generated metropolitan momentum in one of the gutsiest performances of his career.

The dominant output rendered the pregame injury report long forgotten: Towns was originally listed as questionable after he endured painful knee-on-knee contact with Indiana's Aaron Nesmith in the closing stages of Game 4. Towns and the Knicks took their time in confirming his status for the game, but one look at the postseason ledgers, one that still has the Knicks one loss away from a violent awakening from their championship dreams, was all it took to get him back on the floor.

"I looked at the game and it said Game 5, do or die. That was all I needed to see,” Towns said, per Peter Botte of the New York Post. “Shoutout to our medical staff. They gave me a chance to go out there and compete tonight. I’m glad I was able to. We put a lot of hours trying to get myself ready and I got a chance and God was good and I was able to go out there and play.”

Towns made sure that the work of the Knicks' award-winning training staff was not in vain: while Jalen Brunson rested at the onset of the second period, Towns' takeover commenced, as he contributed to all but six points of an 18-11 captain-less run partly punctuated by two successful and-ones for the All-Star center-turned-forward. That proved to be enough to build a double-figure lead that they would not relinquish after the final minute of the first half and pave the way to a season-extending victory.

Towns' fantastic fifth was the fulfillment of a desire to come through for Brunson after he and the rest of the Knicks came up short in Game 4. In that prior showing, the fell just short in a shootout after they failed to help the apologetic captain on the offensive end. Brunson once again fulfilled his own end of the bargain with 32 points, shooting 12-of-18 from the field in his franchise record-extending 21st 30-tally game in a New York uniform.

"We win as a team, we lose as a team. I'm never going to allow Cap [to do it on his own]," Towns said, per Phillip Martinez of SNY. "He does so much for us and we ask so much out of him every game. He’s never going to go out there and take all the blame. We all do. Family and brothers never let someone go out there and take all the blame. We all got to be willing to lose together and win together."