Karl-Anthony Towns coy about thumb injury in possible Knicks concern

Karl-Anthony Towns played it coy when pressed about the injury to his shooting thumb, repeating four times in the postgame locker room, “It is what it is,” with his hand tucked in his pocket. 

“It’s as simple as that,” the center said. 

Still, Towns was clearly bothered for much of Monday’s loss to the Pistons after banging his hand in the opening half on the backboard during a drive.

A couple of his subsequent shots were way off, but Towns still managed 26 points and 12 rebounds. 

At one point late in the third quarter, Towns was swiped on a drive and ran into the crowd grabbing his hand in pain.

He declined to reveal whether there was an X-ray and coach Tom Thibodeau gave his usual non-update of “I haven’t talked to medical yet.” 

“They hit shots when they had to,” Towns said about the Pistons. “We could sit here and talk about all the things we could’ve done. We just didn’t do it. Cost us in the end.” 

Towns has missed three games this season, including one last week with knee soreness. 

For the second time this season, Thibodeau called out the Knicks for arguing with the referees and failing to defend because of it. 

“You can’t complain if you feel like they missed a call. If you jog back and you’re talking to an official, it could be three points [on the other end],” Thibodeau said, adding, “It’s a long season. No one’s perfect. The officials, it’s a tough job. Very tough. There’s emotion in the game, there’s frustration, but you also have to understand the pace that the game’s being played at. You can’t afford to complain. You can make a point on a dead ball to an official. They’re usually pretty good with that, but if you’re doing it when the ball’s live, now you’re at a disadvantage on the other end, it becomes a five on four and it becomes an open 3 or a layup, and then at the end, maybe it’s a one possession game. You have two or three of those in a game, that can be the difference in winning and losing.”