Just hours before the New York Knicks were scheduled to tip off against the Charlotte Hornets on Wednesday night, reports surfaced that Milwaukee Bucks star Giannis Antetokounmpo had asked the team to facilitate a trade to send him elsewhere.. Given his stated desire over the summer to be dealt to the Knicks, multiple sources began to find ways in which the Knicks could finally make a deal to add the All-Star and make a push for an elusive NBA title.
Almost all of these trade scenarios included sending Karl Anthony Towns out of town. This also comes after the Knicks failed to agree to a contract extension with Towns before the October deadline. Yet despite all the noise, it was Towns who led the team to a 119-104 victory Wednesday night with a 35-point, 18-rebound, five-assist performance.
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After a tough road loss to the Boston Celtics on Tuesday, the Knicks looked visibly tired in the second game of a row. Their jump shots were systematically failing. Their passes weren’t as crisp or timely, and the defense was often sloppy. Luckily for them, the Charlotte Hornets, now 6-16, were just as sloppy, and a determined Towns was more than enough to help them pull out the win.
Not that the Knicks didn’t try to let Charlotte end the game. After leading by 15 at the end of the first quarter, the Knicks built a 20-point lead with 7:18 left in the first half. The Hornets couldn’t seem to buy a bucket, and the Knicks had easy looks in transition. It looked like they were going to be victorious. However, the Hornets went on a 26-9 run to bring the game to three before a half-court third by Jalen Brunson gave the Knicks a six-point advantage before halftime.
Brunson finished with 26 points and five assists, while shooting just 1 of 5 from beyond the arc for his second straight poor shooting night. Still, the Knicks built up another huge lead in the third quarter before LaMelo Ball pulled the Hornets back to within eight in the fourth. Ball paced the visitors with 34 points on 12 of 27 from the field (5 of 13 from beyond the arc), with nine assists and eight rebounds, while rookie Kon Knueppel scored 13 points, four rebounds and four assists.
But in the end, Towns and the Knicks were just too much.
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Karl Anthony Towns dominates with physical performance
While Brunson was mired in another poor shooting night to start the game, it was Karl Anthony Towns who paced the Knicks early on, scoring eight points and grabbing four rebounds before the game’s first timeout was called. The big man showed tremendous playmaking ability all night, dishing out five assists and throwing a few other impressive passes that didn’t result in successful baskets.
Additionally, unlike many of his other standout performances this season, Towns showed off his versatility on Wednesday night by doing much of his damage in the paint.
The big man, who entered the game attempting 5.3 three-point attempts per game, attempted just one three-point shot in the first quarter and a half of action. Instead, he bullied the Hornets in the paint, scoring eight of his first 10 points in the restricted area, including a stretch with five minutes left in the first quarter where he was blocked twice by Hornets reserve center Ryan Kalkbrenner, but grabbed two offensive rebounds then finished with a layup in traffic.
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That night, 20 of his 35 points were scored in the paint. He entered the game averaging 10.6 points in the paint per game, who was tied for 27th in the NBA, behind smaller players like De’Aaron Fox, Jaylen Brown, Jaime Jaquez Jr., And Tyrese Maxeyamong others. He also only attempts 7.1 shots per game in the restricted area per game.
However, Towns and the Knicks saw an advantage against a Hornets team that allows the 7th most goals scored per game inside five feet. The Hornets also entered the day 22nd in FG percentage allowed in the paint, but they had allowed the 12th fewest attempts in the paint per game in the league.
They weren’t so lucky on Wednesday.
The Hornets have an interesting decision at center position
When most people think of the Hornets, they think of LaMelo Ball hoisting three-pointers from any spot on the court or Kon Knueppel’s impressive rookie season. However, the Hornets also feature an intriguing center duo consisting of Moussa Diabetes And Ryan Kalkbrenner.
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While neither player is a household name, they are important pieces of the Hornets’ rotation, and figuring out how to stagger their minutes has been a unique challenge for head coach Charles Lee.
Diabate, who started the game Wednesday, is a 23-year-old former second-round pick who is averaging 9.3 points, 8.0 rebounds, 1.2 assists and 1.1 blocks in 23 minutes per game. Kalkbrenner, who at 7’1″, is three inches taller than Diabate, is also a 23-year-old second-round pick who is averaging 9.0 points, 6.6 rebounds and 1.8 blocks while shooting 81.1 percent from the field.
While neither player is a dangerous scorer, they are a big reason why the Hornets rank 13th in the NBA in offensive rebounds and 14th in total rebounds.
While Coach Lee appears to be using a “hot hand” approach to determining which big man gets the most minutes, it appears the team has been more effective overall with Diabaté on the court.
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The former Michigan Wolverine is smaller than Kalkbrenner but more athletic and a dynamic offensive rebounder. The Hornets have +15 victories expected with Diabaté on the field. Their offense is better by 7.3 points per possession and their offensive rebound rate improves by 10.8%. Meanwhile, the Hornets are -24 expected wins with Kalkbrenner on the court and are worse by 11.6 points per possession.
Despite Kalkbrenner’s ability to block shots, the Hornets are also a better defense with Diabaté on the ground and have a 4.7% higher defensive turnover rate in his minutes. With the Hornets struggling to establish consistency during the 2025-26 season, it might not be a bad idea for them to see what would happen if they gave Diabate a more extended run.
Josh Hart continues to pace the Knicks after a slow start
At the start of the season, there were some questions surrounding Knicks power forward Josh Hart. The man who seemingly never left the field under previous head coach Tom Thibodeau was likely going to come off the bench and play far fewer minutes than before.
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Then, in training camp, Hart aggravated a nerve injury on the ring finger of his shooting hand, causing his finger to swell and become numb, which obviously impacts his shooting and ball handling. Hart decided to delay the operation until the end of the season, but the results were not good at the start of the year.
Through the first 10 games of the season, Hart averaged 8.4 points, 6.2 rebounds, 3.7 assists and 0.8 steals in 23.8 minutes per night. He was shooting 44.4% from the field (33.3% from deep) with an effective success rate of 51%.
In addition to his offensive struggles, he boasted an unusually poor defensive rating of 116.1 and a player impact rating of 10.1. He seemed frustrated with his performance and role, and there was concern that he wouldn’t fit in as well in Mike Brown’s new system as he did under Thibodeau.
Well, starting with a thrilling victory on November 14th against the Miami Heat in the NBA Cup, Hart changed the entire narrative of his season. Over his last nine games as of Wednesday, Hart had averaged 15.7 points, 9.4 rebounds, 6.4 assists and 1.8 steals in 34.3 minutes per game. He is shooting 55.3% from the field (45% from deep) with an effective success rate of 65%.
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His defensive rating also improved to 113.7 and his player impact rating to 14.6.
His performance did not go unnoticed since Head coach Mike Brown took the blame for Hart’s poor start: “I’ll take the hit… The hardest part, even stepping back further, (Hart) didn’t really play in the preseason; he didn’t even really practice in the preseason. So, for me, I was behind the eighth ball and really trying to figure out how to fit it into what we were trying to do. It just took time, and he was extremely patient with the process… His sacrifice was incredible because when I knocked him out, he just sat back when I called his number, he came out and played. But more importantly, his confidence in the process, even though he thought I was wrong, was awesome.
On Wednesday, Hart scored just 15 points and was seemingly everywhere, also recording eight rebounds and eight assists with a block, a steal and a +/- of 12. The veteran once again became an influential player in addition to just a team leader, and it helped the Knicks win six of their last eight games.
