Karl-Anthony Towns battles through murky finger injury in Game 3

Karl-Anthony Towns doubled over in pain in the second quarter Saturday, clutching and shaking his left hand after drawing contact while driving to the rim.The All-Star center remained in the game and ended up logging 36 minutes, but he finished just 5-for-18 from the field in a 115-93 loss to the Celtics at the Garden in Game 3 of the second round.Still, according to amateur lip readers on social media, it appeared that Towns said later in the game that he believed he “broke” something on the play.“It is what it is.I just want to do whatever I can to be out there,” Towns said afterward.

“It is what it is.I’m gonna keep finding ways to play, so I ain’t tripping.”Towns finished with 21 points and 10 rebounds in Game 3, with most of his point total attributable to getting to the free-throw line for 11 attempts and sinking 10 of them.But the 7-footer also missed 4-of-5 tries from 3-point range to fall to 1-for-7 in the series after he nailed 42 percent during the regular season and 48 percent in six games in the first round against the Pistons.Towns, who missed one game while dealing with a right-hand issue in January, got tangled up with Al Horford and Jrue Holiday on a drive with a little more than seven minutes remaining in Saturday’s second quarter.The “I think I broke it” moment captured by ABC cameras came late in the half after Towns fought Luke Kornet for a rebound.

The New Jersey product also was shown wincing in the third quarter after a foul called against Holiday.“It’s the playoffs, people are going to get hit and you’ve got to play through things,” Knicks coach Tom Thibodeau said.“That’s why you do it the entire season.

No one’s playing 100 percent.Sports+ subscribers: Sign up for Inside the Knicks to get daily newsletter coverage and join Expert Take for insider texts about the series.“But you have to understand that you can play well when you’re feeling less than your best.I think the mental toughness part of th...