Knicks’ Karl-Anthony Towns shut down by Celtics’ swarming defense

If Karl-Anthony Towns’ first game against the Celtics as a Knick — his debut in October — was a dud, then this was a disaster.

A night of total ineffectiveness. Of few attempts and even fewer makes. Of a lost rebounding battle against a Boston team missing its starting center.

Towns’ first season with the Knicks hit a low point Saturday during their 131-104 embarrassment against the Celtics at the Garden, when he finished with a season-low nine points on 3-for-8 shooting and just nine rebounds.

He was downgraded to questionable before the game with a knee injury, tied his fewest attempts in a game this campaign, finished with fewer than 10 rebounds for just the eighth time this year, and admitted afterward that he wasn’t 100 percent.

“I’m gonna watch the tape to find out,” Towns said when asked how the Celtics limited his attempts. “I got a good idea, though.”

Saturday marked the latest instance of Towns’ knee injury — patellar tendinopathy — popping up for the Knicks in a campaign where he has also been forced to navigate a thumb injury. But Towns, the blockbuster acquisition that instantly bolstered the Knicks’ ability to contend with teams such as the Celtics, said following the game that he wanted to fight through the knee injury.