ORLANDO, Fla. — The only thing that’s consistently stopped Karl-Anthony Towns is foul trouble.
Amid his scorching start with the new franchise, the center has become increasingly susceptible to personal fouls — particularly early in games — and it’s an area both Towns and his coach acknowledged requires adjustment.
At least an adjustment to avoid the unnecessary fouls.
“There’s good aggressive fouls and there’s fouls that are obviously cheap that you have to clean up,” Tom Thibodeau said. “I think that’s the important thing for him to understand — the difference between the two and how it’s being called.
“And I think discipline is the most important thing. And we want the contact but we also want it to be done with intelligence. It’s a big part of physicality, it’s a big part of winning. What are the officials looking for? He’s been around long enough to know there are things they’re looking for that trigger calls. So, be disciplined. The verticality being one of them, setting screens being the other.”
Towns is difficult to officiate because he’s big, strong, creates contact and plays physically. Lately, for some reason, the whistle has been harsher. He’s accumulated at least five fouls in four of the past six games.
In a victory over New Orleans last week, Towns was limited to 27 minutes and 11 points — largely because of foul trouble. During the Christmas win over the Spurs, he collected his fifth foul early in the fourth quarter and was held to 29 minutes with 21 points. In Friday night’s 108-85 triumph in Orlando, Towns again navigated foul problems while managing just 16 points in 32 minutes.
“First let’s start with the man in the mirror,” Towns said. “Maybe I’ve got to make better decisions. I give up possibly one to two [bad fouls]. So do my job first. Take out the ones that I can handle.”
Towns added there are other fouls he doesn’t understand and avoiding them “ain’t up to me.” But, in the end, he said, “It is what it is. The best thing about it is we’re winning. That’s the only thing that matters at the end of the day.”
Indeed, the Knicks are winning. Heading into Saturday’s game against the Wizards, the Knicks (21-10) captured six straight and 16 of their past 20. Towns has been a huge part of that — at least when the whistles aren’t removing him from the floor.
“We are doing a good job especially when we are allowed to play physical,” Towns said. “That is when we are at our best. We are capitalizing on our opportunities … able to get stops, getting turnovers and translating them into points.”
