Karl-Anthony Towns is becoming more comfortable as the New York Knicks are in the second month of their season.
That’s the last thing the Charlotte Hornets need to hear.
The Knicks visit the Hornets for a Wednesday night game and New York is 2-2 so far on a five-game road swing, including Monday’s 113-100 victory at Brooklyn.
Towns, who has led the Knicks in rebounding in 11 consecutive games, said there are signs he’s coming out of a shooting slump. He was 14-for-20 on Monday, putting him above .500 from the floor for the second time this season.
“I trust the work I put in against anybody in the league,” Towns said. “I’m always going to be confident with the work I’ve put in.”
Towns was New York’s leading scorer for just the third time this season after racking up 37 points in Brooklyn. That tied Jalen Brunson for the team’s second-highest output this season. Towns has the most with 39 on Nov. 14 against the Miami Heat.
“Try to move him a round quite a bit,” Knicks coach Mike Brown said. “You could see his comfort level is starting to get there. … If he has room to drive, it’s going to be tough of his defender because he can shoot the ball. Also, the rest of the guys doing a great job making sure the floor was spaced correctly.”
Towns averaged 23.3 points in three outings last season against the Hornets, with New York going 2-1 in those games.
Charlotte won the last matchup with the Knicks to snap a six-game skid in the series.
The Hornets will try to shed a six-game losing streak. They followed Saturday’s home loss to the Los Angeles Clippers with Sunday’s 113-110 setback at Atlanta. During the skid, Charlotte lost in overtime and three other games by single-digit finals.
Rookie guard Kon Knueppel has led the Hornets in scoring in each of the past four games, boosting his scoring average to 19.4. He has shot 50% or better from the field in those games, while he connected on a season-best seven 3-pointers in Atlanta.
“We just want to get in the win column,” Knueppel said. “We’re playing hard. We just got to play with our mind a little bit better – get the matchups we want, think about what we’re doing, execution offensively, and know our personnel defensively.”
Charlotte needs to make the most of a three-game homestand.
“When we’re doing the things we’re supposed to be doing, we look good,” Hornets guard Sion James said. “It’s as simple as that. We’re just trying to stick to what coach (Charles Lee) told us to do to begin with.”
With a couple of days off, the Hornets were able to replenish their roster after LaMelo Ball (ankle), Brandon Miller (shoulder) and Ryan Kalkbrenner (ankle /illness) missed the Atlanta game. None of the three were in the injury report for Wednesday’s game, although Ball and Miller could have minutes restrictions as they did in their most-recent game on the court.
The Knicks, who are 2-5 in road games, will be without Landry Shamet (shoulder), who also missed Monday’s game.
