The New York Knicks are disintegrating anyone in their path. They have won seven consecutive playoff games, a franchise record, by a combined 185 points, an NBA record.After a regular season that included an impressive 53 wins but also without a surefire identity, the Knicks have discovered what makes them special. So, what has changed since falling into a 2-1 hole during their first-round series against the Atlanta Hawks? Let’s run through three trends that have caught my eye since the Knicks last lost, more than three weeks ago.Running ’round TownsA familiar routine has followed Knicks games. Someone on the outside scans the box score and zeroes in on Karl-Anthony Towns’ shot total. If the number is too low, allegations follow. “The Knicks did not involve him enough,” they might accuse. Someone could insist, “They got away from Towns.” Maybe, just maybe, they forgot their All-Star center even existed.Over the past two seasons, the conversation has largely become: How can the Knicks get Towns more shots?But this is not the correct way to discuss Towns. The shots — or, sometimes, the lack of shots — are a symptom, not the ailment. Shot totals can be indicative of a player’s involvement in an offense, but it’s not a one-to-one comparison. A player could shoot only occasionally but still be in the middle of it all, as has happened with Towns during this seven-game winning streak.Towns rarely shoots, yet he hasn’t been so involved all season. And most importantly, he has never performed at this level.Over these seven games, he’s averaging 15.7 points, 9.6 rebounds and eight assists. And the numbers are deflated since he’s playing only 26.3 minutes during the stretch, partly because of foul trouble and also because of the many fourth quarters he’s been on the bench during blowouts.Over these seven games, he’s taken double-digit shots only twice — and those two games were at only 11 and 10 field-goal attempts. However, no one can point to that column and claim he’s uninvolved anymore. The Knicks don’t avoid Towns; they run through him.Since the Game 4 adjustments against Atlanta, he’s averaging 99 touches per 100 possessions, according to Second Spectrum. Against the Sixers, that number climbed to 103. During the regular season, he averaged only 83.This is a different Towns, more in line with the one head coach Mike Brown tried to create early in the season, but who could not get comfortable as the hopeful hub of the offense.Now, he’s adopted this style and been one of the best players in the playoffs.After the Knicks dropped two of the first three to the Hawks in Round 1, they rejiggered their offense. Towns stepped in as the lead facilitator, the guy to handle the basketball in the high post, the low post, even off drives. New York has not lost since. He’s never been this willing a passer, as if he’s caught some unknown distributing contagion. The Knicks sliced Atlanta with flex screens and flex cuts, as I wrote following Game 4, but Towns’ advancement is more than just schematic.He is looking to pass at every opportunity.Kickouts. Touch passes. Overhead passes. Twisting passes. Ones off drives. Ones from the post where he leans into his defender and holds the ball out backward. The basketball is a kumquat in Towns’ hands. He’s so large that it looks less like he’s playing hoops and more like he’s teasing a young child in a hapless game of keep-away.Check out this play from Game 4 of the Knicks’ soul-sucking sweep of the Philadelphia 76ers. Towns receives the ball on the left side beyond the 3-point arc, actually a tad farther from the basket than New York would hope. The Knicks have turned to this action often over the seven-game heater. This area is called the “pinch post,” a cushy set for Towns, who stands in the high post as three players run an action on the opposite side of the court.Watch Jalen Brunson here. He gives the ball to Towns, then runs to the right side of the court to set a screen for Mikal Bridges. The Knicks regularly ran this action against the Sixers. Sometimes, it was Brunson setting the screen. In other moments, it was Bridges. Here, Philadelphia makes it easy.Towns is patient. He notices 76ers wing Kelly Oubre Jr. hung up on the screen, and he finds Bridges for a cutting layup.Towns is averaging 11 assists per 36 minutes over these seven games. For reference, the single-season record for a big man, held by three-time MVP Nikola Jokić, is 11.1.The shots are down because Towns is choosing for them to be, not because the Knicks are failing to include him.