On the surface, Wednesday night's game against the Grizzlies wasn't a must-win for the Knicks. However, after dropping their third straight and looking bad doing it on Tuesday, Josh Hart had some pointed comments about his team's direction. 

He even called the game against Memphis "must-win."

So it's a good thing the Knicks put together a wire-to-wire win against the Grizzlies. Although it wasn't necessarily easy.

A young, depleted Grizzlies team fought hard against the Knicks. They beat the Knicks in the second and third quarters, almost taking their first lead of the game in the third quarter.

However, the combination of Karl-Anthony Towns and OG Anunoby. Didn't let that happen. Without Jalen Brunson (ankle soreness) in the lineup, the two forwards combined to score 45 points. Towns dished 11 assists and came down with 11 rebounds to pick up a triple-double, his second as a Knick. Anunoby added 13 rebounds to his scoring to finish with a double-double. 

"A game like that, it's always tough if you play against a group that's free and can attack and has nothing to lose," Knicks coach Mike Brown said after the win. "But our guys at the end of the day, we were good in a lot of areas."

Brown said that the team's turnovers, which they had 19, and fouling -- sending Memphis to the line 30 times --  made the game tougher than it needed to be, but applauded how his players responded, especially Anunoby and Towns down the stretch when the Grizzlies were hanging around.

"A lot of good performances from our guys, we were able to make it up in terms of the times that they went to the free throw line and our turnovers by offensive rebounding," Brown explained. "OG had three offensive rebounds, KAT had six offensive rebounds. KAT had a triple-double tonight, which was great. And especially in 30 minutes of action, and then OG, for him to get 13 rebounds. A big, big night to get a double-double. We needed every single one of those rebounds."

"I thought we did a good job moving the ball," Towns said of the win. "I thought we did a good job of playing with a point-five mentality and doing everything we needed to do to beat a good team, and a hungry team. With a lot of guys trying to prove themselves in this league. I thought we did a good job of weathering the storm. We understood they’re going to play hard. They’re going to play well, and we found a way to win."

For Towns, the key to his performance on Wednesday was the faith he had in his teammates. Memphis constantly double and sometimes triple-teamed the big man, but he would find the open man. It was a trend for the entire Knicks team. New York had 36 assists on the 48 shots made.

"When they double and triple teaming, I understand that one of my teammates is open," Towns said. "Just staying patient, staying relaxed and trying to make the right play. I was disappointed with the turnovers I had today, but I’m glad that I was able to find my teammates more than not and we were able to come out with a win."

 The win allowed the Knicks to hold on to their spot as the three-seed in the Eastern Conference (1.5 games ahead of Cleveland). They'll look to keep that momentum and try to get closer to the Celtics and the two-seed when they host the Bulls on Friday.