DALLAS — Karl-Anthony Towns’ game, his future with the Minnesota Timberwolves franchise and his responsibility for this team going from NBA toast to Western Conference Finals toast have come under scrutiny in recent days.
The stupid fouls, the shots, the horrible percentages were all front and center. The player he has been for nine years is suddenly dissected by those who have always been seduced by his talent but frustrated by the lack of results his talent seems to demand.
More than anyone on this list, even more than permanent whipping boy Rudy Gobert, Towns needed it. Not just to perform, but to impact winning. The value of a single shot would only go so far.
And then, in 15 minutes where he was one foul away from disqualification, in a game where his team was one elimination loss away, he dug deep and went to a place, a zip code that he didn’t has never visited since he turned professional.
Anthony Edwards put it simply: “He was the reason we won tonight.”
Towns finally found range when the Timberwolves desperately needed it, scoring 25 points with five rebounds as Minnesota entered this conference final with a 105-100 victory, sending the series back to Minneapolis for fifth game Thursday night.
His three fourth-quarter triples came in a span of three minutes — the first giving the Timberwolves a 92-90 lead and the final giving his team some breathing room with 2:54 left and a six-point lead.
“He was super confident,” Edwards said. “He wasn’t worried about the shots before the ones he made tonight. He played exceptionally well.”
The fourth quarters had been a real bugaboo for the Timberwolves in this series, and it could easily be argued that the struggles fell on Towns’ shoulders. The Dallas Mavericks made the decision that Edwards wouldn’t beat them, and he couldn’t do it in the first three games.
He’s seen eyes, hands and feet his way, and with the way this team is structured, Towns needs to be a dynamic scorer. What was a smart gamble backfired against Dallas for once, and for the first time in over a week, the Timberwolves appeared to be playing like the balanced team that was initially favored.
A lot can happen in eight days. Cities have gone from silencing skeptics to re-emerging, in full effect, with stakes higher than ever. It wasn’t about him presenting gaudy but ultimately empty numbers, it was about Towns holding his team back from a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity.
It was about Towns’ form as this franchise moves forward, especially when coach Chris Finch said his Game 3 performance was “tough to watch” as Towns shot 5-for-18.
“He’s been a big part of every series up until (now) and we knew we had to get him in this series,” Finch said. “Tonight was a big step for that.
“KAT is a great player. His struggles weren’t going to last forever. He got into a foul situation, but we left him out there. Let it ride. Played smart, played under control. Really proud of him.
But if there’s a theme in these playoffs, over the last two years in particular, it’s that of players shaking off their disappointment, challenging the collective confirmation bias of the world’s first impressions of the NBA and charting new narratives.
Like Nikola Jokić and the Denver Nuggets last year. Like the duo Luka Dončić and Kyrie Irving this year. Like the Boston Celtics in the East.
It may be too late for Towns and the Timberwolves this year — the hole they’ve dug is probably too deep to recover from — but they’re too young to believe otherwise. It’s not a very young team, there are veterans who express urgency, who are good enough to influence the victory, but they cannot lead it.
“He was the talk of the series when he wasn’t able to make shots,” veteran point guard Mike Conley (14 points, seven assists) told Yahoo Sports of Towns. “For him to block all that, to refocus his intention on winning, it’s impressive. The guy works hard and not to be rewarded in the first three games, it hurts to see him like that. But if you keep going, and maybe the tide will turn.
The Timberwolves walked into the American Airlines Center knowing a celebration could take place on that floor, and all they had to do was cooperate, concede, “good job, good effort” and sneak into the offseason.
But these guys are incredibly stubborn, oblivious to the most obvious stats, and have the nerve to believe they’ll be back for a Game 6 and then a Game 7.
“Now is not the time to have doubts,” Towns said. “I’m going to go out there, be aggressive. Shoot my shot. Like I’ve done all the sets and be confident in every shot I shoot.”
Towns made a mistake with his eight-man team, because of course this series needs more suspense in a compressed time frame. This only opened the door for Edwards, who slowly seems to be finding the spaces in Dallas’ defense to assert himself.
Especially with Mavericks center Derek Lively II out due to a sprained neck, Edwards found more room — throwing himself into bodies at the rim, rarely being rewarded for it but being relentless in his approach.
Missing a jumper at the elbow with 1:25 to play wouldn’t stop him from taking another one – from a deeper distance no less. So he put more elevation into his 20-footer, giving the Timberwolves a 102-97 lead with 38.8 seconds remaining.
“I was on the bench, I was ringside watching it, yeah, when I fouled,” Towns said with a laugh. “I see Ant, in a way I visualize this brand. He got exactly where he wanted to get. »
Edwards flirted with a triple-double again, with 29 points, 10 rebounds and nine assists. But more importantly, this spirited group has reason to feel like it’s growing, even through failure, even though the elimination the story speaks of is certain.
“Might as well make something happen,” Edwards told his teammates in the locker room, beaming with confidence.
For the first time this series, perhaps an anomaly, they held the powerful duo of Dončić and Irving to below-average performances. Dončić was spectacular but could only muster the magic in a few moments compared to his total domination in the first three games.
The Timberwolves were able to withstand Dončić’s 28 points, 15 rebounds and 10 assists because they didn’t let him use the entire court as his personal playground, forcing him and Irving to shoot 33 percent each.
It’s a formula that seems repeatable for at least one more game. But can they grow even more in the space of two days, then another two days, then another?
“It’s not a question of whether we can or can’t do it,” Conley told Yahoo Sports. “We must.”