Karl-Anthony Towns collected 31 points and 11 rebounds Saturday night, helping the New York Knicks post a 122-103 win over the visiting Washington Wizards.
Mikal Bridges added 27 points while OG Anunoby had 23 for the Knicks (44-26), which snapped a two-game losing streak. Cameron Payne tallied 13 points, while Josh Hart had nine points and 12 rebounds.
Jordan Poole had 25 points for the Wizards (15-55), who dropped their fourth in a row. Marcus Smart scored 17 and Kyshawn George finished with 15 points and 10 rebounds.
Holding a 25-point halftime lead, the Knicks’ commanding advantage ballooned to 31 after Towns opened the third quarter with four straight free throws and Hart’s dunk extended the lead to 72-41 with just over a minute gone.
Later trailing by 31, Washington answered with an 11-0 run — including AJ Johnson’s two triples and Poole’s 3-pointer.
Smart’s trey closed out the quarter’s scoring, cutting the Knicks’ lead to 92-76 entering the fourth.
Washington’s run continued into the final quarter, with another Smart 3-pointer stamping a 12-0 Wizards’ spurt to pull within four.
Anunoby’s pair of layups and Hart’s basket later capped the Knicks’ 15-2 run, extending the lead to 107-90 with 5:23 left. The lead was again pushed to 17 on Towns’ 3-pointer with 3:46 remaining.
After Payne’s 10 first-quarter points helped New York to a 31-21 lead entering the second, Bub Carrington’s layup pulled Washington within eight at the 9:22 mark. From there, New York’s three-point barrage consumed the Wizards, as Anunoby’s consecutive triples and Bridges’ three straight treys gave the Knicks a 48-26 lead almost midway through the second quarter.
Poole’s four straight points stopped the bleeding, but Bridges scored 11 of New York’s final 18 points, bringing his first-half tally to 24 points. Trailing 66-41 at halftime, Washington made just 2 of its 16 3-point attempts (12.5 percent).
–Field Level Media
