DALLAS — Karl-Anthony Towns' play, his future with the Minnesota Timberwolves and his responsibility in the team's slide from NBA greatness to a loss in the Western Conference finals have come under scrutiny in recent days.
The stupid fouls, the shooting, the terrible percentages — it was all a priority. After nine years as a player, he was suddenly being criticized by people who had been enthralled by his talent but frustrated by the lack of results it brought.
Towns needed this more than anyone on that roster, even perennial scapegoat Rudy Gobert, not just to perform but to impact a win. Bravado on a sweep only gets you so far.
And with his team one loss away from elimination, one foul away from disqualification, in those 15 minutes, he gave it his all and headed to a place he'd never been since turning pro, a place in a different zip code.
Anthony Edwards put it succinctly: “He helped us win tonight.”
Towns finally found his shooting range when the Timberwolves desperately needed it, finishing with 25 points and five rebounds and leading Minnesota to a 105-100 conference final victory, sending the series back to Minneapolis for Game 5 on Thursday night.
All three of his fourth-quarter 3-pointers were made in a three-minute span, the first of which gave the Timberwolves a 92-90 lead and the last giving the team a bit of breathing room with a six-point lead with 2:54 left in the game.
“He was very confident,” Edwards said. “He wasn't worried about any shots except the ones he hit tonight. He played very well.”
The fourth quarter has been a thorn in the Timberwolves' side in this series, but it's easy to blame Towns for their struggles. The Dallas Mavericks decided they couldn't win with Edwards, and he didn't win in the first three games.
Towns saw his eyes, his hands, his feet all blocking his way. The structure of this team requires Towns to be a dynamic scorer. It was a smart gamble for Dallas, but it backfired, and for the first time in more than a week, the Timberwolves looked like the composed team that initially seemed the favorite.
A lot can happen in eight days. Towns went from silencing the doubters to raising them all again, with the stakes higher than ever before. Not because Towns put up gaudy but ultimately hollow numbers, but because Towns held his team back from a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity.
It was about Towns' fit as the franchise moves forward, especially after coach Chris Finch said Towns' Game 3 performance, in which he shot just 5-of-18 from the field, was “tough to watch.”
“He's played a big role in every series so far, so we knew we needed to use him this series,” Finch said. “Tonight was a big step toward that.”
“KAT's a great player. His struggles won't last forever. He got into foul trouble, but we just let him be. We let him go. It was a smart, controlled play. Really proud of him.”
But if there's been a common theme throughout this playoffs, especially the past two years, it's that players have shed their disappointments, challenged the NBA world's collective confirmation bias about first impressions and written a new narrative.
Like Nikola Jokic and the Denver Nuggets last year, Luka Doncic and Kyrie Irving this year, and the Boston Celtics in the East.
It may be too late this year for Towns and the Timberwolves. The hole they've dug is probably too deep to recover from. But they're too young to think that won't happen. This team isn't young yet. They have veteran players who express a sense of urgency and are good enough to impact wins, but they can't carry the team.
“He's been the talk of the series when he can't make shots,” veteran point guard Mike Conley (14 points, seven assists) told Yahoo Sports about Towns. “It's great that he was able to forget about all that and focus on winning. He's working so hard and it hasn't paid off in the first three games, so it's tough to see him like that. But if he keeps working hard, maybe the tide will turn.”
The Timberwolves walked into the American Airlines Center knowing there would be a celebration on this home court, and all they had to do was cooperate, compromise, say “good job, great work” and slide into the offseason.
But these guys are amazingly stubborn, unconcerned with the most obvious statistics, and have the brazenness to believe they can come back for Game 6 and then Game 7.
“There's no time for doubt,” Towns said. “I'm going to be aggressive. I'm going to take shots. I'm going to be confident in my shot, just like I've been all series.”
Towns fouled out with his team leading by eight points — because, of course, this series needs to pack more tension into a short period of time — and it only opened the door for Edwards, who was slowly finding space in the Dallas defense and making an impact.
Especially with Mavericks center Derek Lively II out with a neck sprain, Edwards found more space, rammed players around the rim and was relentless in his approach, even if it was rarely rewarded.
A missed elbow jumper with 1:25 left didn't deter him from taking another shot — from deeper — so he elevated it even higher and drilled a 20-foot shot to give the Timberwolves a 102-97 lead with 38.8 seconds left.
“I was sitting on the bench when I fouled out and I had a front row seat to it,” Towns said with a laugh. “I kind of got a visual of Ant making that play. He got exactly where he wanted to be.”
Edwards came close to a triple-double again with 29 points, 10 rebounds and nine assists, but more importantly, this feisty team has reason to feel like they're thriving even when they fail, even though history shows that defeat is inevitable.
“Let's go ahead and make a change,” Edwards confidently told his teammates in the locker room.
For the first time in this series, and perhaps unusually, they held the powerhouse duo of Doncic and Irving to a subpar performance. Doncic played well, but his magic was fleeting compared to how dominant he was over the course of the first three games.
The Timberwolves were able to withstand Doncic's 28 points, 15 rebounds and 10 assists because they didn't allow him to use the entire court as his personal playground and held both Doncic and Irving to just 33 percent shooting from the field.
It's a formula they could easily repeat for at least one more game, but can they improve even further with two more days, then two more days, then one more?
“It's not a question of can or can't,” Conley told Yahoo Sports. “It has to be done.”
