Karl-Anthony Towns flashes his Knicks potential in mixed preseason debut

CHARLOTTE, N.C. — Tom Thibodeau’s centers didn’t do that before.

On his second shot in a Knicks uniform Sunday, Karl-Anthony Towns pulled up from 27 feet and buried a 3-pointer, the first glimpse at both the range and confidence of New York’s star 7-footer.

However, Towns struggled with his shot after that conversion.

He missed 4 of 5 3-pointers and finished with 10 points in 15 minutes as the Knicks beat the Hornets, 111-109.

More noteworthy was Towns being outrebounded by Charlotte center Nick Richards, 8-4, before sitting the second half.

Towns will bury his treys and space the floor — as he’s done at a high clip his entire career — but protecting the rim and paint, both Thibodeau staples, are question marks.

On his previous team, they were big enough concerns for Minnesota to acquire Rudy Gobert for those tasks.

Thibodeau said he was only looking to establish a “baseline” in the preseason opener, so the hope is there’s progress toward a cleaner game and regular rotation by the preseason finale on Oct. 18 in Washington.

“You’ve been going through training camp and so it’ll be good to go against some different faces,” the coach said. “All the things we’ve been working on, to see it in a game situation. Just get started.”

The Knicks unveiled their entire high-profile starting five on Sunday, with Jalen Brunson at point guard, OG Anunoby, Josh Hart and Mikal Bridges on the wings, and Towns at center.

Brunson, playing his first game as Knicks captain, was the starting lineup’s leading scorer and a typically crafty ball handler, dropping 12 points on 5 of 11 shooting with three assists.

He and Towns accounted for 22 of the starters’ 30 points.

The group played less than a half, so the sample size is minuscule.

But the shot distribution was interesting in that it could project forward, just based on Brunson and Towns being high-volume scorers.

Bridges, making his Knicks debut after leading the Nets in scoring last season, attempted only five shots with four points.

He also drew the toughest defensive assignment in Charlotte’s LaMelo Ball.

Anunoby, just handed a $212 million contract, had four points while taking just three shots.

Hart, a regular triple-double producer last season, went scoreless on two shots with one rebound and one assist.

Thibodeau just wanted the reps.

“I think it’s important for us because Mikal obviously is new, KAT hasn’t played with these guys, and OG played in a very limited amount of time,” Thibodeau said. “Basically you’ve got a new starting five that has to get acclimated to playing together. And then we have a different bench, too, so those guys have to get some work together as well.”

As expected, the Knicks’ second unit was Miles McBride, Precious Achiuwa, Landry Shamet, Cam Payne and Jericho Sims.

McBride was aggressive with a game-high 22 points on 18 shots, while Shamet added 16 points in 27 minutes.

The Hornets had a chance to win at the charity stripe with 2.5 seconds remaining, but Duane Washington Jr. missed all of his free throws after being fouled on a 3-point attempt. Washington, ironically, was among the many players sent away by the Knicks in the Towns trade. He was given extra money in the deal — essentially signed to a guaranteed contract only because the Knicks needed to match salaries — and Sunday was a small payback.