(Reuters) — Karl Anthony-Towns totaled 20 points, 10 assists and 10 rebounds for his first career playoff triple-double as the New York Knicks earned a 114-98 victory over the host Atlanta Hawks and evened their Eastern Conference first-round series at two games apiece on Saturday night.
Towns ensured Game 5 on Tuesday in New York will not be an elimination game for the Knicks and also ensured the series returns to Atlanta for Game 6 on Thursday.
Towns posted his fifth career triple-double in any game. He also notched the seventh postseason triple-double in New York’s history and joined Dick McGuire, Walt Frazier and Josh Hart as the fourth player with a postseason triple-double in team history.
“I thought we did a great job coming out with more tenacity, more desperation I think is the proper word,” Towns said.
Towns secured his 10th rebound when he grabbed a missed jumper by Jalen Brunson and converted the putback in the final seconds of the third to give the Knicks an 86-65 lead into the fourth quarter. The center recorded his 10th assist by finding OG Anunoby for an open corner 3 to put the Knicks up 90-66 with 10:46 left.
“He’s a special talent,” Anunoby said. “He can do it all. I know if I get open he’ll find me.”
Anunoby led the Knicks with 22 points and 10 rebounds for his fourth career playoff double-double. Jalen Brunson added 19, including a 3 as the shot clock was expiring for a 104-80 lead with 5:26 left.
Miles McBridge chipped in 11 off the bench while Hart collected 10 points and nine rebounds. Mikal Bridges remained in the starting lineup after going scoreless in Game 3 and contributed eight points.
The Knicks shot 49.4%, made 14 of 31 3-pointers (45.2%) and led for the final 42:40.
“We got stagnant,” Hawks coach Quin Snyder said. “You got to give them credit, their aggressiveness on the defensive end… a team that got after it. It’s not like we didn’t compete, but we didn’t compete enough to win this game.”
CJ McCollum led the Hawks with 17 points but was held to three points after halftime. McCollum shot 8 of 15 but missed four of five shots in the second half.
Nickell Alexander-Walker added 15 and hit five 3s, but the Hawks were a dreadful 10 of 41 (24.4%) from behind the arc.
Jalen Johnson finished with 14, but shot 4 of 12. Onyeka Okongwu contributed 12, but Dyson Daniels was held to six points.
Atlanta shot 41.5% and conceded 21 points off 19 turnovers
Brunson was 3 of 10 in the opening quarter, but the Knicks clamped down defensively and held Atlanta to 36.8% (7 of 19) shooting en route to a 27-20 lead.
“There was a sense of urgency there down 2-1,” Hart said. “Giving away two games that we should’ve won. We had that sense of urgency from the jump and now we have to be ready to have that sense of urgency from the jump in Game 5.”
The Knicks took their first double-digit lead when Bridges was credited with a basket due to a goaltending call on Atlanta a little over a minute into the second. Brunson returned with 7:31 left and his open 3 pushed the lead to 41-29 with 6:56 remaining.
New York took a trio of 16-point leads in the final minutes of the second quarter and held a 58-44 lead by halftime. Atlanta cut the lead to 61-53 on a basket by Okongwu with 8:43 left, and the Knicks countered by scoring 11 straight points with Brunson on the bench.
“They played better than us. They played harder than us,” McCollum said. “We would have liked to go up 3-1, but if you would have told us we’d be 2-2 going back to the Garden (MSG), life’s not so bad.”
