New York Knicks center Karl-Anthony Towns, 29, who has been dealing with a right knee injury, sat out his team's 103-94 loss to the Orlando Magic at Madison Square Garden on Monday, the club's third straight defeat after a nine-game winning streak.

Losing to the West’s No. 1-seed and NBA’s top-ranked Oklahoma City Thunder defense? Understandable. Losing to the fast-paced, run-and-gun Chicago Bulls 24 hours later? Chalk it to dead legs. Dropping a third game in a row,

Before the game Monday night you might have been hard-pressed to convince anyone of that with the Orlando Magic arriving at Madison Square Garden with a squad missing five key players — three of their four leading scorers.