(AP Photo/Abbie Parr)
So much of what happened this past Monday in the NBA makes sense. Timberwolves All-Star Karl-Anthony Towns dropped a career-high and Minnesota franchise record 62 points against the 10-31 Charlotte Hornets. Minnesota was up as much as 18 and ended up on the dark side of a 128-125 come-from-behind Charlotte victory. The T’Wolves took a 15-point lead into the fourth quarter and lost the quarter 36-18.
On the same night that KAT could have been the star of the night, Joel Embiid dropped a Sixer record 70 points at home against Wemby and the Spurs, and Kevin Durant hit a game-winning shot against the Bulls with 1.6 seconds remaining on the clock.
KAT came into the league with big aspirations, and he is in the second tier of centers in the league, but the former #1 overall pick hasn’t seemed to ever reach his full potential. Why does it seem like moments like this happen to him more than others? This is a league of ‘moments’. To be in the top tier of stars in this league you need to have these ‘moments’. KAT dropped a career-high 62 points and broke his team’s franchise record yet the more memorable moment is that Minnesota choked an 18-point lead and that Head Coach Chris Finch called it a ‘disgusting performance’, even saying KAT was “hunting” points.
We can argue about substitutions and what could have been done in the fourth quarter, but to solidify themselves as a team that deserves respect from the rest of the West they are going to have to close the games that they should win.
A year removed from the gentlemen’s sweep in the postseason against the Nuggets, the Timberwolves have been a dominant force halfway through the season and hold the one seed in the West. Come playoff time, if the first round comes around and the Wolves are matched up with the Lakers or Mavs (who tend to turn to another gear in the postseason) am I confident they can win? I’m not.
It has been a pattern recently in the West where a new team has been a top 1 or 2 seed. There were the 2020-21 Jazz (#1 seed), who lost in the second round to the Clippers, and Last year’s Grizzlies (#2 seed), who lost in the first round to the Lakers.
It seems that young teams recently have been going all in during the regular season and are burnt out or simply outmatched in the postseason. It’s interesting to see that the Timberwolves and Thunder, who are the top two seeds in the west, are listed as the fourth and fifth most likely teams to get to the finals from the west.
It’s a league of stories, and the Timberwolves are an interesting one to follow this year. All this Timberwolves talk and I haven’t once mentioned their star in Anthony Edwards, or a 6th man of the year candidate Naz Reid who should be getting much more recognition. But we’ll save more on both of them for when we get to our All-star break awards ceremony.
Minnesota, despite a 62-point effort from your former #1 overall pick, I would call this moment a low. Let’s see where you go from here. Maybe this is just what the top seed needed.
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