Monday night was Karl-Anthony Towns' breakout game of the 2025-26 season; after a bit of a slow start to life under new head coach Mike Brown, Towns finally erupted for the New York Knicks this season in a 119-102 win over the Washington Wizards. He put up 33 points, 13 rebounds, and five assists, putting both Alex Sarr and Marvin Bagley III in the weight room, as he provided production that was reminiscent of his very successful first season in the Big Apple.
Towns has put up six double-doubles in his first seven games this season, so it's not like he hasn't been stuffing the stat sheet like in years past. But it's his scoring that was finally unlocked on Monday. It was his first 30-point outing of the season (he had 22 games with 30 or more points last year), and in so doing, he passed Luka Doncic for most games all-time with at least 30 points and 10 rebounds, as pointed out by StatMuse.
Towns entered the league three years earlier than Doncic did, so it's not like this is any sort of mind-blowing feat. But at the end of the day, Doncic is one of the best stat-sheet stuffers in the history of the NBA, and passing him on that leaderboard has to feel good for any player, even for someone as accomplished as the Knicks star.
Towns ranks 15th all-time in most 30/10 games, and everyone on top of him on that list is either in the Hall of Fame or will inevitably make it someday. Among active players, the Knicks star ranks seventh, trailing only Giannis Antetokounmpo, Anthony Davis, LeBron James, Joel Embiid, Nikola Jokic, and Kevin Durant.
The Knicks star will look to keep his much-better play going when they return to action on Wednesday to face the Minnesota Timberwolves.
Karl-Anthony Towns may be adjusting to life under new Knicks head coach Mike Brown
It always requires a bit of an adjustment period when a successful team such as the Knicks, a squad that made it all the way to the Eastern Conference Finals, decides to make a change as big as the one they made in the coaching ranks.
Towns definitely hasn't been his best self to begin the year; he entered Monday night against the Wizards with a field-goal percentage below 40 percent. But it looks like Towns is figuring it out, and the Knicks, with their star center hitting his stride, just might be hitting theirs.
