Karl-Anthony Towns had his first postseason triple-double, OG Anunoby scored 22 points and the New York Knicks recovered after back-to-back losses to beat the Atlanta Hawks 114-98 and tie the Eastern Conference playoff series at 2-2.
Boomers guard Dyson Daniels was dogged as usual and had a balanced statline of six points, six assists and a team-high nine rebounds, but failed to provide any major impact to the Hawks hopes of winning.
Towns had 20 points, 10 rebounds and 10 assists. The 11th-year All-Star became the fourth Knicks player to record a triple-double in a playoff game, joining Walt Frazier, Dick McGuire and Josh Hart.
The Knicks host Game 5 at Madison Square Garden on Tuesday night (Wednesday AEST), and the series is now guaranteed to return to Atlanta for Game 6 on Thursday.
New York took control of the game midway through the first quarter and maintained the lead for the rest of the game. The Knicks held a 68-44 advantage at halftime and extended that lead to 20 points by the end of the third quarter.
In Phoenix, Devin Booker briefly left the Suns’ Game 3 loss to the Oklahoma City Thunder because of a left ankle injury he sustained after tripping over Lu Dort’s foot.
The Thunder won 121-109 to take a 3-0 lead in the best-of-seven series. Shai Gilgeous-Alexander scored 42 points to go with eight assists and four rebounds.
Booker returned a few minutes after the injury and said after the game he was “fine.” The five-time All-Star should be ready to play in Game 4 on Monday when the Suns try to avoid a four-game sweep.
The injury occurred early in the third quarter when Booker was cutting to the basket and tripped over Dort’s right foot. Booker said he thought Dort stuck out his foot a little on the play, but didn’t know if it was on purpose.
“I don’t know if it was intentional or not — I saw he stuck his leg out a little bit,” Booker said. “He threw his hand up to say that it was a foul and it just wasn’t granted.
It’s the latest example of the Suns having problems with the officiating in the series.
Booker was fined AUD49,000 for public criticism of officiating following the team’s Game 2 loss. The league said it found “no basis to any claim of bias or misconduct by game officials” despite Booker’s pointed criticism of official James Williams, but rescinded a technical foul at 2:05 in the third quarter that was “improperly assessed.”
The Thunder won that game 120-107.
Booker went down hard after Saturday’s incident, holding his ankle while obviously in pain. The 29-year-old got up fairly quickly, but hobbled to the bench and then back to the locker room. He seemed eager to put the incident behind him.
“I don’t want to make it a thing,” Booker said. “It’s not the first time it’s happened and probably won’t be the last, so you just have to deal with it.”
Earlier on Sunday AEST, Orlando beat Detroit 113-105 to take a 2-1 lead in their series.
