Karl Anthony-Towns Breaks Timberwolves’ Franchise Single-Game Scoring Record in Disappointing Loss
Image by Yahoo Sports
On the anniversary of Kobe Bryant’s legendary 81-point game in 2006, NBA stars around the league showed their love by shattering scoring records.
Of course, the two most impressive performances of the night came from Philadelphia 76ers’ center Joel Embiid and Minnesota Timberwolves’ center Karl Anthony-Towns. Embiid’s 70 points and Towns’ 62 points were both single-game franchise records for points in a game.
But what was arguably the most interesting was the fact that the Timberwolves ended up short of a victory despite the legendary performance from Towns. What makes this even worse is the Timberwolves lost 128-125 to one of the worst teams in the NBA this season, the Charlotte Hornets. So what happened? How does a contending team possibly lose with that type of performance from Towns?
There are three main reasons; Towns was trying to score as much as possible, the Wolves’ defense completely broke down in the fourth quarter, and questionable referee calls at the end of the game.
Wow, this tells the whole story of Towns’ fourth quarter. Before this, Towns had 58 points through three quarters with 44 points in the first half alone. However, when it came to winning time it appeared that Towns went into “hero mode”. Granted, some of the spots he was getting to are spots where he has been very efficient this season, but that doesn’t constitute shooting the shot if the defense is only focusing on him. It got so bad that Timberwolves’ Head Coach Chris Finch decided to bench him not once, but twice in the fourth quarter.
This more than anything destroyed the flow of offense for the Timberwolves in the fourth quarter, as the Hornets outscored the Timberwolves 36 to 18 in the fourth quarter. With the 10 attempts shot by Towns who had the flaming hot hand, one would think that the Timberwolves would be able to score more than 18 points in a quarter.
Another key aspect of the game to look at was the breakdown defensively in the fourth quarter from the Timberwolves. Finch talked about the defensive efforts in his post-game interview with Bally Sports North below:
Finch is spot on with calling the late-game defense from the Timberwolves a “disgusting performance” as the Hornets were able to put in a staggering 36 points in the fourth quarter. He mentions that the Timberwolves didn’t contain the ball on drives, which proved to be a massive problem throughout the fourth quarter. Hornets’ Miles Bridges, Brandon Miller, and Terry Rozier were able to get to the paint almost uncontested. This puts an enormous amount of pressure on the on-ball defender and puts the defender in a situation where they are almost forced to foul. The Hornets were able to do this the entire fourth quarter.
Finch was also asked about the absence of point guard Mike Conley and the leadership he usually brings to the Timberwolves. He mentioned that the Timberwolves needed more leadership from players like Towns, Kyle Anderson, and Anthony Edwards. With Edwards dealing with illness it was not the best night to have an impactful leader such as Conley out.
Lastly, there were a couple of very questionable referee calls at the end of the game. This is the one that stands out and has NBA fans on social media debating:
This is clearly a foul on rookie forward Leaky Black. He is coming down with his right hand and doesn’t even come to getting ball, however, there was no foul call on the play. If the call was made, Towns would’ve headed to the free-throw line with Minnesota trailing Charlotte 126-125 with about 8 seconds left in regulation.
It’s always tough when a game comes down to a single call like that, so some credit does have to given to basketball referees in general for the job they do. However, missing a blatant call like has left Timberwolves fans with a bad taste in their mouths.
Minnesota will head to Washington on Jan 24th to face off with the Washington Wizards. this starts a four-game road stretch for the Timberwolves, as they will play back-to-back with a Jan 25th battle against the Brooklyn Nets, then play the San Antonio Spurs and Oklahoma City Thunder later in the week. The Timberwolves will try to recover from two straight losses in the upcoming road stretch of games.
