Grading Karl-Anthony Towns' Knicks debut that left plenty of room for improvement

Karl-Anthony Towns knew he would play his first game of the regular season on Oct. 22, but he didn't think it'd be for the New York Knicks. The blockbuster trade that sent Julius Randle and Donte DiVincenzo to the Timberwolves happened less than a month ago.

KAT played in every preseason game except one, and the results were encouraging. His first unofficial Knicks points came off a three. Fans coped with losing two key players by celebrating the fact that New York has a stretch five. Towns opens up the lane for Jalen Brunson, which showed in the team's first official game of the season.

Unfortunately, the Knicks' perimeter defense, rim protection, and rebounding were poor. Jericho Sims was the first player off the bench to replace Towns. Sims' performance was discouraging, and KAT's wasn't promising. New York missed Mitchell Robinson's defense and rebounding tremendously.

The Celtics hunted KAT on both ends of the floor, which resulted in him shooting 5-of-9 (1-of-2 from three) for 12 points in 24 minutes. The Knicks would've liked to see Towns take more than two three-point attempts, but Boston's defense didn't allow it.

Karl-Anthony Towns has mediocre performance in Knicks' loss to Celtics

The Celtics looked like the reigning NBA champions, and the Knicks looked lost. Let's take a step back and remember that as discouraging as the loss was, it was KAT's first official game with the team. It just so happened to come against the best team in the league. Other teams won't play New York as well as Boston did.

Towns and the Knicks learned many hard lessons in game one. It's the kind of loss that fans desperately want to forget but one that New York improves upon. Towns will only get better as he acclimates to his new environment, but that doesn't mean he won't have limitations. The Knicks know what kind of player he is. You can trust that Tom Thibodeau will find a way to make it work.

The silver lining is that New York will return to MSG to host Indiana, whose defense won't be nearly as ferocious as Boston's. However, the Pacers are powered by their offense, which could hurt the Knicks if their defense looks anything like it did on Tuesday. Let's see how Towns and New York react.

Grade: C-