Zach Lowe

He's averaging 26.6 points per game in the playoffs, six assists, two and a half turnovers, 46% shooting overall, 33% on threes.

Towns is averaging 17 a game, now up to 57% shooting, 48% on threes, 11 rebounds, five and a half assists, almost as many assists as Brunson, obviously the size, the rebounding.

There's an argument to be made, and the advanced stats would make it for you, that Towns has been the best player on the Knicks in the playoffs.

It's hard for me to get all the way there with a near 10-point gap in scoring and just how clear it is that Brunson is the fulcrum of – the ball-handling fulcrum, anyway, of the offense.

And Towns has obviously had flirted with foul trouble here and there in some games.

But I think –

I don't think it's a stretch to say that it's close at the very least.

That's how good Towns has been on both ends of the floor.

And you throw in the just sudden and dramatic uptick in his assists.

He's been like 48% shooting on threes.

He hasn't taken enough, but it's incredible.

And you saw this up close, so I will let you weigh in.

But I've said this before.

I will always...

I will like in the first round of the playoffs, there are eight series, so many series and so many games that I naturally and others sort of.

Don't necessarily check out, but my attention level to detail when a series goes 3-0 for game four and beyond wanes a little bit.

And one of the exceptions and one of the reasons I changed that, and now I pay pretty, I'm almost as detailed now for those series, is that Minnesota-Denver series in 2023.

And I wrote it the next year when they swept Phoenix.

I thought the last three games of that series were the turning point in Towns' career.

in the playoffs now he fouled out of two of them but he played 38 and 36 minutes so it's not like he was just like fouling consistently um in games that probably history will not remember as consequential because it was a 3-0 series games 3 4 and 5 again not spectacular 27 points on 10 of 17 17 11 on 5 of 9 and then 26 on 9 of 17 but there was a new just like