TORONTO – Win or lose, Karl-Anthony Towns isn't shy about answering postgame questions. Sometimes those answers can last for minutes at a time.
Karl-Anthony Towns at a loss for words after Timberwolves blown out by Toronto
The center took 13 shots — and only one three-pointer — as the Wolves lost ground on the Nuggets and Jazz in trying to climb to the No. 6 seed in the West and avoid the play-in game.
March 31, 2022 at 12:20PM
But after the Timberwolves lost 125-102 to Toronto for their fourth loss in five games, Towns does something he rarely does — gave a one-word answer.
Moments before, coach Chris Finch said he had to do a better job of getting Towns touches when teams pay extra attention to Towns, as Toronto did Wednesday.
"He's got to get the ball, he's got to get more touches, we've got to get through him a lot more," Finch said. "That's on me."
Towns was asked if he agreed with that statement after he had only 13 shot attempts.
"Yes," he replied, biting his lip as he gave a few taps to the table.
Lest anyone think Towns is upset with Finch, he was heaping praise on Finch and the coaching staff for the job they have done all season in his very next answer. For all the strides the Wolves made this season, the last week has shown just how far they need to go to join the NBA's elite. They have lost four of five to teams such as Dallas, Boston, Phoenix and now Toronto and their goal of reaching the No. 6 seed to avoid the play-in tournament slips farther away with each loss. They are now three back of Denver and 2 ½ games back of Utah (three in the loss column).
"These games ain't going to get any easier," Towns said. "It's going to get much, much harder. If you think today was tough, when we get to April 14, it's going to get really difficult."
At first, Wednesday seemed not that difficult. The Wolves held a 17-point lead in the second quarter but Toronto erased that to take a 62-60 halftime lead with a barrage of threes, 8-for-12 to be exact. They shot 18-for-36 for the game, with Apple Valley's Gary Trent Jr. hitting six of them for a game-high 29 points. Pascal Siakam pitched in a triple-double with 12 points, 10 rebounds and 13 assists.
But the Wolves didn't point to Toronto's hot shooting or their inconsistent defense as the reason for the loss. Instead, they looked at their 23 turnovers.
"We had a lot of turnovers that were just dumb," Finch said. "Just silly turnovers. Throwing the ball out of bounds off of outlet passes and stuff like that."
The Raptors opened the third quarter on a 10-2 run. The Wolves never challenged them the rest of the night.
Anthony Edwards led the Wolves with 24 points and eight rebounds while Towns had 16 points. He had eight of those in the first quarter, but the league's All-Star three-point contest winner attempted only one three.
"You remember the double teams before used to come on the dribble. Now they're coming on the thought of a pass," Towns said. "Not even the pass, but the thought of it. Teams are giving me respect, we've just got to utilize that to our advantage."
Towns isn't getting much help from his friend D'Angelo Russell, whose struggles continued. Russell scored 13 points on 3-for-15 shooting from the field.
"It's just a confidence thing right now," Russell said. "When you see a lot of shots you usually make miss, the confidence isn't there. So it's just staying high, staying high with my confidence and knowing they're good looks and I make these and take these shots."
The timing of Russell's slump and the Wolves' funk couldn't be worse for their hopes of a playoff berth while avoiding the play-in. The team put tickets on sale Wednesday for that play-in game. It still might not happen, but it has gone from a probability to a likelihood.
"If it wasn't for the play-in game, we'd be in the playoffs," Edwards said. "But we good. We still gonna be in the playoffs, I feel like."
Despite so-so record, Wolves have improved at crunch time.
