Карл-Энтони Таунс анхаарлаа төвлөрүүлж, Никсийн шинэ боломжуудыг нээж байна

INDIANAPOLIS — Amid a scoring outburst, the loudest explosion of his career, Karl-Anthony Towns subbed himself out of the game.

Not because he was tired. Not because he couldn’t compete anymore. But because this was a man engaged.

Towns’ New York Knicks had bogged down for a possession, draining the clock while up two points with less than a minute to go. As the 24-second clock buzzer sounded, Jalen Brunson released a fallaway jumper that did not reach the rim.

Violation. Indiana Pacers’ ball.

Towns knew what to do next.

The 7-footer turned around and motioned to the Knicks bench, pointing at fellow center Mitchell Robinson, who on Sunday had entered the starting lineup for the first time all postseason but wasn’t on the court at the time. As Towns ran at the sideline, his head panned to the coaching staff, pointing at Robinson with emphasis, screaming his name.

“Mitch! Mitch!” he alerted.

Towns had already dropped in his last points of the night by then. He went for 20 in the fourth quarter after scoring just four over the first three periods, helping New York storm back from down 20 points to swipe victory away from the Pacers. Given the context, with the Knicks on the verge of falling down 3-0 in the Eastern Conference finals, Towns had never thrown a team on his back like this.

Yet, he understood the situation.

Down two points with 37.6 seconds remaining, the Pacers were about to receive a chance to tie the game or take the lead. With the clock stopped, the Knicks needed a defensive substitution. Towns, in a moment that paired focus with self-awareness, was calling for one.

Robinson checked in for Towns. Brunson, another offense-minded star, exited for the possession, too. The Knicks got a stop, in part because of a disruptive Robinson closeout on an errant jumper from Pacers center Myles Turner. New York secured the rebound and finished out the game at the free-throw line.

Head coach Tom Thibodeau would have inserted Robinson for Towns regardless of Towns’ suggestion. Thibodeau never misses an opportunity to fine-tune rotations at the ends of quarters, cycling between offensive- and defensive-slanted lineups during situations like these. But Towns knew it, too.

This was the sign of a man locked in on the moment.

The Knicks replaced Josh Hart in their starting lineup with Robinson heading into Game 3, but the move was less about the two guys involved than it was about Towns, who Thibodeau benched for most of the fourth quarter during Friday’s Game 2 defeat. Towns’ up-and-down defense had become enough of a problem that the coach deemed backline protection necessary.

Robinson is a malleable giant capable of holding down the paint and locking down defenders away from it. He could help insulate the issues with Towns.

Those issues, ones not necessarily about effort or intensity but more about focus, were obvious after Game 2. Towns went rogue too often on defense, running coverages that weren’t in the game plan, a season-long tendency that stood out most against Indiana’s dynamic attack. One lowlight from Friday’s second half — a pick-and-roll from Pacers point guard T.J. McConnell where Towns unexpectedly “hedged,” venturing 30 feet from the basket without warning and giving up an open dunk seconds later — became a point of discussion.

The Knicks needed Towns locked in. Nay, Towns needed Towns locked in.

For the first three quarters of Game 3, he didn’t appear so. He picked up his fourth foul three minutes into the second half, scored only four points in the initial 36 minutes and succumbed to the off-kilter habits that inspired the adjustment to New York’s starting lineup.

But come the last 12 minutes, with Brunson in foul trouble and his team trailing by double digits, Towns realigned. One quarter became a declaration: This is why the Knicks traded for the five-time All-Star.

When Towns zeroes in the way he did for the final stretch Sunday, only a handful of people on the planet can match his production.

He didn’t just drop 20 points in the fourth quarter. He knocked in all 20 over a seven-minute span.

Towns wasn’t freelancing. At times, when he binges on buckets, games can turn unserious, even chaotic as he flails to the rim and gives up fast-break buckets or mismatches on the other end. On Sunday, he turned crisp.

He began the fourth tossing an over-the-head pass to a cutting Miles “Deuce” McBride, who clanked a layup. The Knicks recovered the miss and kicked it to an open Towns for 3. A possession later, he squared Turner up on the right side, took him into the post and turned over his left shoulder for a smooth hook layup.

Seconds after, he manned a McConnell-Turner pick-and-roll — the same type he botched in Game 2 — but sagged back to the paint properly, contesting a McConnell jumper and forcing a miss short. He snagged the rebound himself and looked for an outlet before realizing no one was returning for the pass. Towns would have to take the ball up himself, which he doesn’t do often. With McConnell behind, he rushed it up the court, picked up his dribble as the feisty Pacers irritant tried to poke the ball away and found an open Delon Wright for a layup.

The momentum continued.

A steal from Hart. A pass to Towns. A drive to the basket on Turner. An and-1 finish at the basket.

Forget about the scoring. Towns’ fingerprints were everywhere.

“He was amazing, bro. He was amazing,” Robinson said. “When we needed him the most, he came through.”

He came through with the Knicks behind 10 heading into the fourth. He came through with Brunson stapled to the bench with five fouls only to re-enter for the final couple of minutes, when he helped nail down the win.

The question now becomes, which Towns shows up for the rest of the conference finals?

The Pacers have guarded him with centers, most commonly Turner, a deviation from what Towns experienced over the first two rounds of the playoffs, when the Detroit Pistons and Boston Celtics used smaller perimeter players to bother him and foist him into suboptimal shot selection. With Turner on him, Towns is free to rise for 3s; he’s sprier throttling to the basket, as he did on those fourth-quarter drives.

Near the end of the game, the Pacers tried lengthy forward Pascal Siakam on Towns for a possession. If Towns catches fire in Game 4, could Indiana — which doesn’t normally cross-match — try non-centers on him?

It’s worth following how Thibodeau distributes Brunson’s and Towns’ minutes. The Pacers have attacked the All-Star duo on defense when they share the court, but Towns’ struggles in Game 2 and foul trouble in Game 3 limited their time together over the past two games.

“The majority of the time, those guys are gonna finish together,” Thibodeau said. “They’ve played a lot of minutes together, and that’s the way we approach it. But both guys are team-first guys.”

Towns went off with Brunson out of the game. The defense clamped down, not as vulnerable with only one weak link participating — and undoubtedly stronger once an often-dicey center turned more focused than he’s been all series.

I break down how Jalen Brunson creates separation via his elite stopping ability.

(Photo: Gregory Shamus / Getty Images)