Knicks Bench Karl-Anthony Towns in Crunch Time Once Again

The playoffs stand just a few weeks away from the 2025-26 New York Knicks, where they'll be expected to play their best basketball on a near-daily basis in outlasting all other postseason opponents. That means keeping their best players on the court in the clutch, but the dark side of Karl-Anthony Towns' game has flared up to prevent the Knicks from rehearsing with a stacked hand over recent games.

The regular All-Star's struggled with consistency all season. Towns' re-heated shooting touch has looked stronger over the last month, but the scorer is still finishing well below his standards from deep and around the rim. Head coach Mike Brown can handle the occasionally-inefficient outing, but all of the mental lapses and mistakes that have become associated with the center's off-nights are too much for him to handle without having to make drastic in-game changes.

Towns didn't do himself any favors in notching just 13 points in the Knicks' 114-103 loss to the Charlotte Hornets, committing a comedy of errors early in the second half that snowballed into the lead that the home team would eventually capitalize on.

Bad fouls, turnovers and defensive slip-ups peppered one particularly-brutal third-quarter stretch, enough to badger Brown into limiting Towns to three minutes in that final frame in lieu of Mitchell Robinson.

KAT's last 2.5 mins before subbed out at 8:08

Loses Miller who makes 3

Posts up

Fouls, Hornets OReb

Lost, Diabate dunk

Out of bounds, Hornets OReb

Walked, Hornets OReb, 3

Timeout
Jent ATO:
Loses bw legs
Miller dunk+DaBaby dap
Jent slams chair

Misses

Beat
Fouls

Sits pic.twitter.com/YTzPFt8uGR
— New York Basketball (@NBA_NewYork) March 27, 2026

Scanning the Knicks' Locker Room

Robinson may lack Towns' scoring creativity and shooting upside, but he's never been one to complicate his game more than he has to, and he certainly doesn't unravel to nearly the same degree as the big man starting ahead of him.

He's expressed dissatisfaction with his role upon numerous past instances, but he hasn't even been able to enjoy expanded opportunities amidst such an untimely loss to a bothersome dark-horse playoff matchup.

“Unless we change our approach, we ain’t doing s*** special," he said following the defeat. "Keep that bulls*** up, myself included.”

New York Knicks Center Mitchell Robinson — Mar 20, 2026; Brooklyn, New York, USA; New York Knicks center Mitchell Robinson (23) warms up before the game against the Brooklyn Nets at Barclays Center. Mandatory Credit: Vincent Carchietta-Imagn Images | Vincent Carchietta-Imagn Images

Towns took Brown's substitution in stride, refusing to give a scandalous quote by claiming his interest in doing whatever it takes to fill out the team's big-picture goals, while Brown chose to emphasize Robinson's more-favorable traits as opposed to bashing Towns while he's down.

“I just thought when we had Mitch in there with certain guys, we were able to match their physicality," Brown said, per Stefan Bondy of the New York Post. "And we made a run. But we were down 20 at that time. And versus a good team on the road, that’s tough to do.”

Even if his Knicks managed to keep the loss from flipping into a blowout, this still serves as the sort of game that fans will fear down the road, even if they manage to avoid the red-hot Hornets. They need Towns to be available and comfortable to anchor their five-out offense, a critical floor-spacer to aid Jalen Brunson while offering an offensive look that Robinson's inapable of matching. He won't uncoil to this degree every game, but the playoff-bound, contending Knicks have little room for error.

Make sure you bookmark Knicks on SI for the latest news, exclusive interviews, film breakdowns and so much more!