Towns still isn't satisfied.
The New York Knicks walked away from State Farm Arena on Monday night with a 108-105 win over the Atlanta Hawks, and while the result looked like just another regular season victory on the surface, the way it played out told you something about where this team is right now.
It was tight, it was physical, and it came down to the final seconds when CJ McCollum's half-court heave at the buzzer was waved off after replay showed time had expired.
New York survived, and Karl-Anthony Towns wanted to make sure everyone understood that surviving is not the same as thriving.
"We gotta get better," Towns said after the game. "Make sure every day we're understanding new coaching system offensively, defensively even a little more. Habits. Got these last games and practices to get it all right, be ready for Game 1. Playoffs started 10 games ago. Headed in the right direction at the right time."
A Big Night From Brunson and Towns
Jalen Brunson was the engine behind the win, pouring in 30 points and dishing out 13 assists in 39 minutes.
His 17 fourth-quarter points turned a competitive game into one the Knicks could actually close out, and the MVP chants that broke out inside the Hawks' own building told you how he controlled things down the stretch.
Brunson is averaging 26.0 points and 6.7 assists this season and continues to show why he is one of the best closers in basketball.
Towns was right there alongside him with 21 points, 12 rebounds and six assists of his own, putting together the kind of all-around game that has become his standard this season where he is averaging 20.1 points and 11.9 rebounds per game.
And yet his focus after the game was not on the stat line or the win itself but on the bigger picture and where this team needs to go from here, which says something about the mindset inside that locker room.
Still Learning Under Mike Brown
The Knicks sit at 51-28 and hold the third seed in the Eastern Conference with just three games left in the regular season.
They have won three straight after beating the Grizzlies, Bulls and now the Hawks, and the overall trajectory has been strong since January when the team hit a rough 2-9 stretch that had people wondering if the new coaching staff could pull things together.
Mike Brown replaced Tom Thibodeau over the summer and the adjustment period was real, which is what Towns was getting at with his postgame comments about understanding the system a little more each day.
Atlanta came into Monday riding a four-game win streak and a 13-game home winning streak dating back to early February, so this was not some walkover.
The Hawks are 45-34 now and remain in the thick of the playoff picture in the East. Nickeil Alexander-Walker poured in 36 points and had 20 in the first half alone to give Atlanta a four-point lead at the break.
The Bigger Picture
But Towns is not wrong when he says the playoffs started 10 games ago.
The Knicks are 7-3 in their last 10 and the way they have been grinding out close games, sitting at 9-4 in contests decided by fewer than four points, that matters more than anything in April and beyond.
The habits Towns talked about, the ones that need to get locked in before Game 1, are the difference between a team that exits in the first round and one that can make a real run.
New York hosts the Celtics on Thursday in what should be another good measuring stick before the regular season wraps up.