Knicks Notes: Ball movement, led by Karl-Anthony Towns, reaches new level in win over Nets

The Knicks’ ball movement on Sunday was the best it’s been all season. New York finished with 33 assists on 43 made shots in a home win over the Nets.

“They did a lot of switching so we did a lot of cutting and I thought guys were unselfish,” Tom Thibodeau said afterward.

Karl-Anthony Towns was in the middle of it for the Knicks, finishing the game with six assists and one turnover.

Thibodeau coached Towns early in his career in Minnesota. After watching him up close again for the past few weeks, Thibodeau believes Towns’ passing has reached another level.

“He’s always been unselfish. He’s always been a team-first guy. But now I think he really sees things,” Thibodeau said of Towns, who is averaging four assists per game over his past five games. “He understands what the defense is trying to do. He knows if there is overhelp. He’s seeing the whole floor now. Initially, like most young guys, the vision was more narrow. It may have been on one guy. But now he sees more than one guy. He sees the defense, he knows where everyone is. (He knows) if there’s overhelp, I can fake here and throw there. That goes a long way.”

The Knicks (7-6) are 4-0 when Towns has at least four assists. He finished with 26 points and 15 rebounds on Sunday.

A for OG

OG Anunoby has been the Knicks’ most consistent player in this young season. He put together another strong performance on Sunday night with 24 points and eight rebounds against Brooklyn. He had three offensive rebounds. Towns finished with five.

Towns also found a cutting Anunoby for several quality looks in close.

Anunoby’s off-ball movement is key for New York’s five-out offense. He’s also pivotal on the other side of the ball.

The Knicks are plus-five in net rating when Anunoby’s on the floor.

“There’s an awareness as to where he is because of the shooting. When he sees the back of his man’s head, he cuts. And he relocates extremely well,” Thibodeau said. “The constant movement by him is huge for us.”

Breather for Brunson

The Knicks relied heavily on Jalen Brunson to score last season. They’ll still need him to score a ton of points this year. But Sunday’s win over Brooklyn was evidence that they have enough depth to thrive when Brunson doesn’t score a ton of points. He had 12 points on 3-for-14 shooting on Sunday. The other four starters had at least 20 points.

“It’s nice to have a good enough, talented enough team where we’re not just so reliant on him scoring and creating,” Josh Hart said after the game. “KAT can fill it up, OG, ‘Kal (Mikal Bridges), Cam (Payne) can bring energy off the bench. It’s not so much pressure on him to knock down shots and initiate everything. Sometimes he can take a couple breaths (on) a couple possessions we can still hoop.”