Karl-Anthony Towns’ 3 and the Timberwolves defense is nowhere to be found

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DALLAS — Karl-Anthony Towns was smiling, but it was one of those painful smiles you can’t help but come when you’re helpless in the moment.

He doesn’t know why his shot abandoned him on the biggest stage of his career. But he’s gone, and so far, no amount of training, focus or desire to succeed for the Minnesota Timberwolves is bringing him back. The ball keeps finding him. The looks are great. They just won’t go down.

Towns stood outside the American Airlines Center locker room Sunday night, cameras crowding around him and focusing on his face as he was asked what was going on.

Towns thinks he’s the best shooter of all time. His regular season shooting percentages would be a strong argument in his favor in this regard. So would the 3-point contest trophy from the All-Star Game in Cleveland.

Yet there he was, looking for answers after going 0 for 8 from 3 in a 116-107 loss to the Dallas Mavericks in Game 3 of the Western Conference Finals.

He couldn’t find them.

“I feel like every shot is good,” Towns said after finishing with 14 points on 5-of-18 shooting. “I’ve shot a lot of basketballs in my life. I’m the first one to the gym. I’m definitely working. I shoot. Every time I spin it feels good. I have these very unfortunate twists and turns all the time. It’s boring.”

The smile that creased his face made it easier to see his teeth grinding together. He’s pressuring now, and every shot he takes seems to carry the burden of all those who missed before him. Through three games in this series, Towns is 15 of 54 from the field (27.8%) and 3 of 22 (13.6%) from 3. He missed his first seven shots in Game 3. And even while there were a few that scored, several of them weren’t even close.

“I don’t want to smile, but I just have to laugh about it now,” Towns said. “It’s very disappointing.”

There will be critics lining up to take down KAT’s quotes. How could anyone laugh in the midst of such monumental struggles that are partly responsible for the Timberwolves being on the verge of being swept?

But standing right in front of him as he said it, I found it clear that Towns was essentially apologizing for not being able to change the expression on his face. He literally couldn’t help himself, a helplessness that was explained by the Timberwolves’ inability to change anything to their advantage in this series.

No matter what they tried, the league’s No. 1 defense was shredded by Luka Dončić and Kyrie Irving. If the Wolves try to use their perimeter defenders to take on Dončić and Irving directly with Rudy Gobert lurking behind them – one of the team’s biggest strengths over the course of the season – Dončić will hit a step back 3 or will gallop down the lane for a lofted pass. to a big one, and Irving will cast a spell with his ball-handling wizardry and nail a seemingly impossible shot over two defenders as time expires.

If the Wolves try to put more defensive pressure on Dončić and/or Irving on the ball, bringing in a defender to knock it out of their hands, the ball swings quickly and usually ends up in the corner for an open 3. According to Derrick Jones Jr. and PJ Washington having trouble knocking them down in Games 1 and 2 in Minnesota, the duo went 5 of 9 in Game 3. The Mavericks went 14 of 28 from 3 to 9 on 30 for Minnesota.

“It’s been tough for us trying to deal with that,” Wolves coach Chris Finch said. “We kind of picked our poison here. And sometimes in the game we do different things.

No matter what they tried, the Wolves couldn’t execute offensively throughout these games, all of which were close. In the final three minutes of all three games – nine minutes total – the Mavericks outscored the Wolves 24-11, shooting 8 of 12 from the field and 3 of 5 from 3, with the Wolves going just 3 of 12 and 0 from 7 deep. .

On Sunday, the Wolves led 104-102 with five minutes left after Kyle Anderson beat the shot clock buzzer with a leaning shot from the baseline. But the Mavericks outscored them 14-1 to take the lead and put the game away. It was similar to Game 2 when the Wolves held a five-point lead with 1:29 left only to see the Mavericks get 3s from Irving and Dončić in a 6-0 closing kick to stun the home crowd. Target Center.

“I can’t speak for everyone, but I’m sure we look up and say, ‘How are we going to win this one?’ How are we going to find out? “, said Mike Conley, who had 16 points and made four 3s. “This is a moment in the game where we have to be united, together and find a solution.

No matter what he tries, nothing seems to work for Finch. He can’t find the right lineups to make it difficult for the Mavs on defense while still being able to score enough on offense to put the game away.

He benched Towns for Naz Reid in Game 2, but it fell short. He started the fourth quarter of Game 1 without Towns or Anthony Edwards on the field, a mistake that fueled a Dallas run to get back into position to win it.

And in Game 3, he finally got away from the Towns-Gobert pairing in the frontcourt by sitting Gobert for more than nine minutes in the fourth quarter. That didn’t work either, as the Wolves lost the period 29-20.

Edwards had another tough game in the first half, but he exploded for 10 points and three assists in a 35-point Minnesota third quarter that erased the Mavericks’ 60-52 lead at midpoint. -time. His quarter included a monster dunk over Daniel Gafford that tied the game and breathed new life into the Wolves and their very nervous fans.

Ant was just 7 for 17 when he made the dunk, but that seemed to fuel him for his most impressive swing of the series, which included a fallaway jumper from the baseline and a dime to Jaden McDaniels for a 3. But after Edwards found that pace, Finch couldn’t get the ball into Edwards’ hands more often in the fourth.

Edwards only made three shots in the fourth, including a meaningless layup with 15 seconds left, and the outcome was already decided. That just can’t happen for a team looking for offense to compete with a seemingly unstoppable Mavs team.

Edwards scored 26 points but missed both of his 3s and had nine rebounds, nine assists and five turnovers in 43 minutes. There were times when he looked like the best player on the field, soaring through the air to embolden his teammates. Then there were times when he looked like the 22-year-old he is, missing assignments on defense, like when he left Washington open in the corner at a critical moment in the fourth quarter.

“It’s a learning experience for him, but we’re also trying to win basketball games,” Finch said. “Generally speaking, we have to look at the plays we made and didn’t make down the stretch. There too, there was a botched execution.

Gobert couldn’t keep the Mavericks off the board before Derek Lively II went down with a neck injury, Nickeil Alexander-Walker was despondent in the locker room after missing 3 of his 4 3-pointers and Reid missed 4 of the 5 attempts beyond the field. bow.

All of this is to say that Towns wasn’t solely responsible for this disheartening loss. He grabbed 11 rebounds and dished out three assists in the third game.

Through the first two rounds of these playoffs, Towns had left many of the old playoff demons behind. He shot 51 percent from the field and 44 percent from 3-point range during a sweep of the Phoenix Suns and the seven-game battle against the Denver Nuggets. Towns saved his best games from these series for the closing games, helping to ease some concerns about his postseason credentials.

These have all come back in this series and seem to multiply with each missed 3.

“It was hard to watch at times,” Finch said. “But he had enough buckets here and there. Defensively, in the second half, I was happy with the way he played, with some pretty good rebounds. But yes, he is struggling.

Game 4 will take place Tuesday night in Dallas. No NBA team has ever come back from a 3-0 deficit to win a series. When the series began, the Wolves needed Edwards and Towns to mount a formidable challenge against Dončić and Irving. They were outscored 181-111 in the three games.

It’s not just about the losses, but how they lose. Their superior defense is dominated by the Mavericks. So many things come easily to them, and when it doesn’t come easy, they hit just as hard. It’s a demoralizing experience for a team that prides itself on silencing its opponents.

“It’s something that whenever things go wrong offensively for us, we’ve all had trouble making shots, we can usually always rely on our calling card, which is defense, to save us ” Towns said. “We just didn’t do enough to win the games and play the defense that everyone knows us for.”

It’s hard to imagine a scenario where the Wolves find the kryptonite to slow down this superhero machine in Dallas. That means they’ll need to find enough offense to match up against two of the best guards in the league. This means that cities has to take inspiration from Dirk Nowitzki, the Mavericks great who has long been considered one of the greatest shooters in the league.

Nowitzki sat courtside Sunday night, also wearing a big smile. His Mavericks are on the verge of making the NBA Finals for the first time since he led them to the championship in 2011, and his legacy as the league’s best shooter seemed more secure than ever.

(Photo by Jaden McDaniels and Karl-Anthony Towns: Kevin Jairaj / USA Today)





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