Karl-Anthony Towns scored 50 points in Sunday’s NBA All-Star Game, a feat that was only slightly more difficult than racking up that many points in an empty gym.
Draymond Green humorously roasts KAT, reminding us of Timberwolves’ progress
Wolves star Karl-Anthony Towns scored 50 points in a lopsided All-Star Game loss on Sunday. A lot of Timberwolves games used to follow a similar script.
The Minnesota Star Tribune
February 19, 2024 at 6:17PM
To say that defense was optional in a game that finished with a final score of 211-186 is an understatement, but someone had to score the points and it might as well have been KAT.
As Towns racked up buckets while the West trailed in a blowout, Wolves nemesis Draymond Green -- he of the suspension-worthy headlock on Rudy Gobert earlier this season -- had perhaps the best line of the entire farce of a game Sunday.
“This is like the old Minnesota days,” Green said. “KAT got 40, they down 20.”
Some Wolves fans didn’t like the comment, seeing at as a form of disrespect. I thought it was hilarious -- and completely true, as Patrick Reusse and I talked about on Monday’s Daily Delivery podcast.
In KAT’s highest-scoring full season, 2016-17 when he averaged 25.1 points per game, he scored at least 40 points three times. The Wolves went 0-3 in those games. He scored at least 30 points in 21 games. The Wolves went 8-13 in those.
In his highest-scoring season overall -- 2019-20, when he averaged 26.5 points but injuries limited him to just 35 games -- the Wolves went 2-9 in games when Towns scored at least 30 points.
It typically wasn’t Towns’ fault that the Wolves weren’t winning. He was the best player on those teams. The Wolves didn’t have enough offensive firepower around him to win shootouts, and they lacked the team defensive acumen to help turn his offensive gifts into victories.
That has changed in a big way this year, as the Wolves are far removed from the “old Minnesota days” Green referenced.
Though the Wolves infamously blew a huge lead in the game earlier this season when Towns went off for 62 points, overall they are 8-3 in his 11 highest-scoring games this season.
It helps tremendously that Towns is more of a co-star -- or supporting actor, depending on the night -- on this year’s team, with fellow All-Star Anthony Edwards carrying more of the load. It helps even more that the Wolves have been the No. 1 ranked defense in the NBA for much of the season.
Add it up and the Wolves are 39-16 and leading the West at the break. And the only resemblance to their old selves came with the league’s best players going half-speed on defense.
Here are four more things to know today:
*Also on Monday’s podcast, Reusse delivered a masterclass in storytelling as he recalled what he has seen since covering his first Twins spring training a half-century ago.
*Minnesota United is closing in on its new head coach: Eric Ramsay, a Manchester United assistant, who at age 32 would be seven years younger than any other head coach in Major League Soccer.
*The Gophers survived a brief rough stretch to defeat Rutgers on Sunday. Reusse said it was as well as they can play for the 37 minutes that were good.
*Tuesday’s podcast will feature Star Tribune Twins beat writer Bobby Nightengale Jr., with an update on how things are looking for Byron Buxton, the bullpen and more.
When he was hired after the disastrous 2016 season to reshape the Twins, Derek Falvey brought a reputation for identifying and developing pitching talent. It took a while, but the pipeline we were promised is now materializing.
