In a tense moment during Wednesday night’s game, Sacramento coach Mike Brown expressed his frustration with Karl-Anthony Towns’ lack of hustle.

The incident unfolded late in the second quarter of the Knicks’ 112-101 defeat to the Kings. Towns, while driving to the basket, lost possession after Precious Achiuwa stripped the ball away.

Instead of getting back on defense, Towns remained on the floor, allowing Achiuwa to chase down an unchallenged rebound near midcourt.

This lapse led to Sacramento’s Russell Westbrook sinking an uncontested corner three-pointer, boosting the Kings’ lead to 17 points.

Brown highlighted the issue, saying, “He drove and fell down, but when that happens, you need to get up and sprint back. Even if you’re the last one, there might be a long rebound. There was no urgency, and it wasn’t an isolated incident. On that play, we lacked the urgency needed to get back, resulting in a five-point swing.”

“If he at least gets down the floor, long rebound, he’s going to get it because he’s trailing the play. We watched the play at halftime and he didn’t even cross halfcourt. That sums up what our night was.”

The Knicks shot a miserable 20% on 3-pointers. But the locker room almost unanimously pointed the blame elsewhere — defense was the problem.

“Offense is secondary to how sh** our defense was,” Josh Hart said. “Gave up what, 40 free throws? Undisciplined. Didn’t lock in on the game plan. It was an embarrassment. Today I really don’t care about the offense. Defensively we’ve got to figure it out.”

The Kings (11-30), a lottery-bound team, had four starters score at least 18 points.

Brown did not rule out Mitchell Robinson playing in his first back-to-back of the season.

Robinson, who is load managing his surgically-repaired ankle, logged 19 minutes in the loss.

The Knicks are at Golden State on Thursday night.

“I’m not sure at the end of the day it’s going to be the medical team’s choice,” Brown said. “As we’ve gone along, his minutes have increased and he’s been able to do more things in practice in terms of their eyes. So whatever they tell us (Thursday night), we’ll listen to it.”