Why Karl-Anthony Towns is the key to the Knicks' playoff dominance 

Towns now runs the Knicks' offense 

Towns would then pass and cycle the ball around, sometimes getting it back, but often times finding an outside shooter — the Knicks tied the NBA playoff record with 25 total threes on Sunday — or whoever the opponent would leave open. He finished that game with a triple-double of 20 points, 10 boards and 10 helpers as the Knicks won 114-98. 

New York and Towns would never look back, winning their next six games in a row and putting together an historic seven-game win streak.

And during the Knicks' overall playoff run, Towns has reached 10 assists three times and dished out seven or more in five, mostly all from the last two weeks. 

Towns has reached double-digits in assists multiples in the playoffs 

So after only averaging 3.0 assists during the regular season and holding a career average mark of just 3.1, Towns is playing different than ever before. 

Making Towns into more of a passer hasn't even hurt his ability to score — he's put up at least 17 points in three of the last four games. 

Thanks to Towns' new mindset, the Knicks' sweep of the Philadelphia 76ers included winning three games by double figures and two by 30, becoming only the fourth team to ever take three or more playoff games by 30-plus points in a single postseason.

Towns and his teammates now own the best point differential (+194) in a team's first 10 playoff games ever, significantly exceeding the then record +170 set by the 2017 Golden State Warriors. 

This new version of Towns has made the Knicks the favorite to come out of the East and a team that looks like it can compete with Oklahoma City or whoever ends up as the West representative in the Finals.