Karl-Anthony Towns spoke on Wednesday, April 15, during a press conference ahead of the New York Knicks’ first-round playoff series against the Atlanta Hawks. The series opens at Madison Square Garden on Saturday, with New York entering as the No. 3 seed in the Eastern Conference.
Towns addressed the matchup and the challenge posed by Atlanta’s style of play, saying: “I mean they’re a great team and they’re young and athletic and they force turnovers. So we expected ourselves to need to be the best. I told you that all year and we just have to continue to use those one percent every game in the regular season to be the team we want to be at this time.”
He expanded on the importance of urgency in the postseason, adding: “It’s great that we put ourselves in this position to be in the playoffs but the regular season doesn’t mean anything if we don’t capitalize on this opportunity. One game. One game. One game. You can’t look in the future. You can’t look past an opponent. You can’t do any of that. The present is the most important thing.”
Towns also highlighted preparation and confidence built through routine work, stating: “As long as we take care of the present, the future will be taken care of by God. I just went out there and maximized my opportunities and I got great teammates that trust me in the positions we play in. I just wanted to maximize this opportunity.”
He described his approach to consistency and responsibility within the team structure: “For me I just consistently walk into this gym and just put the work in so I’m confident whatever I need to do for us to win. I always talk about impacting winning and I put the work in so that’s always getting packed with it. This is the time. We gotta go out there and we gotta execute and we got to capitalize again on this opportunity.”
Towns reflected on team accountability in postseason play, noting: “At the end of the day we will be judged by what we do in these games. It’s important. Like I said I got to continue to impact winning and do whatever this team needs me to do or sacrifice to get us a win. So I’m willing to do that. Trust my work. That’s what my confidence is built on.”
He closed by pointing to preparation and team unity as key factors entering the series, saying: “It’s built when there is no lights, no cameras, no fans. Just me and the basketball and hoop and the great Mark Bryant. We just really get to work and my confidence is built there way before game one. The lights, the fans, the energy of MSG. It’s been built before that. And we done a great job this month of just getting prepared for this playoff run.”
[embedded content]
