By any measure, Karl-Anthony Towns’ NBA career has been a resounding success. The 2015 first overall pick and 2015-16 Rookie of the Year has now played 669 games, starting in all of them, and he’s made five All-Star teams and three All-NBA appearances. However, the 30-year-old has not gotten his hands on any silverware, never advancing past the conference finals and never winning All-Star Game MVP, though he scored 50 points in a losing effort in 2024.
Tonight, Towns — averaging 22.4 points and 11.9 rebounds per game for the Eastern Conference’s No. 2 seed — will have a good opportunity to raise his first trophy when his New York Knicks take on the San Antonio Spurs in the final of the Emirates NBA Cup. The marquee clash will begin at 8:40 p.m. ET at T-Mobile Arena just off the Las Vegas Strip.
New York is a 2.5-point favorite for tonight’s game at DraftKings Sportsbook, with the total set to 233.5. Below, I’ve highlighted my favorite prop bets centered around Towns.
Best Karl-Anthony Towns Prop Bets on DraftKings Sportsbook
Karl-Anthony Towns O32.5 Points + Rebounds (-110)
Towns’ statistical output has been fairly inconsistent this season (along with that of every Knick not named Jalen Brunson) in part because Mike Brown runs a pretty egalitarian offense, but the highs — for instance, a 35-point, 18-board masterpiece against the Charlotte Hornets on December 3 — are extremely high. All in all, he’s recorded 33 or more P/R in three of his five games this month, so he’s trending in the right direction. New York wouldn’t have advanced to the NBA Cup final at all if not for Towns’ ultra-efficient 29-point, eight-rebound performance against the Orlando Magic in the semifinals.
Of course, when Victor Wembanyama is on the court, the Spurs will make it tricky for Towns to make a huge impact inside, but his minutes restriction will be key, given that San Antonio’s rebounding percentage drops from 55.1% to 50.3% and its defensive rating rises from 107.4 to 119.5 when its big man takes a seat. The Knicks will likely have 25 or so minutes of being stifled by Wembanyama inside and 23 against the core of a team that allowed the 13th-most rebounds and 10th-most points across his 12-game absence. Towns should be able to take enough advantage of the non-Wembanyama minutes to reach 33 P/R.
Karl-Anthony Towns 3+ Three-Pointers Made (+173)
Mike Brown has utilized the big man’s shooting ability more frequently this season than Tom Thibodeau did last season, and Towns is averaging 0.5 more three-point attempts per game this season than last season. While he hasn’t been as accurate — his 36.0% mark is the second-lowest of his career — he’s starting to turn it around, converting at a 45.9% clip since Josh Hart was re-inserted into New York’s starting lineup and a 50.0% clip since the start of December. Though he’s only had three or more threes seven times in 24 starts, two of them came within in the last four games.
Three-point defense has been one of the Spurs’ comparative weaknesses this season. They’ve allowed the 14th-most made threes per game on the sixth-best percentage (including the 10th-most makes on the fourth-worst percentage in their 12 games prior to Wembanyama’s calf strain). Opponents are naturally wont to shoot more jumpers with the league’s most fearsome rim protector manning the middle — in every single one of Wembanyama’s 10 most-frequent three-man groups, San Antonio attempts fewer threes than its opponent — and as a result, the Spurs have allowed an above-average number of wide-open threes. Plus, in the team’s Christmas Day matchup in 2024, Wembanyama was Towns’ most frequent defender, so if that’s the case again, Towns should be incentivized to draw him out to the perimeter.
