Foul trouble not as much of a bother for Timberwolves' Karl-Anthony Towns

In the first quarter of Thursday's 101-90 Timberwolves victory over the Jazz, Karl-Anthony Towns picked up two fouls. He went to the bench with just over five minutes remaining in the quarter.

Entering the night, the Wolves were down one of their main offensive cogs in the injured Anthony Edwards, and the offensive numbers already aren't Wolves when Edwards isn't playing. The Wolves' offensive rating when he is off the floor is 99.8, 5.4 points less than Portland, the team with the worst offensive rating in the league.

So losing Towns to foul trouble? That would be a recipe for the Wolves to lose what's otherwise a winnable game. The Wolves offense looked like it needed help. They scored only 20 points in the first quarter.

"I was a little worried with the start with the two offensive fouls and the sitting, which we absolutely could not afford [Thursday]," coach Chris Finch said. "We needed his firepower out there. We needed a guy that we could go to to get a bucket."

Towns came out in the second quarter and hit his first shot, a three. Utah went on a run to take a 35-23 lead, but that's the largest lead it would get. Towns helped make sure of that. He scored seven straight points during a 15-0 Wolves run and helped set up a Nickeil Alexander-Walker three that capped it. He finished with 12 points — and no fouls — in the second. He then scored nine points in the third, again while not picking up any fouls. He committed just one foul the rest of the night.

"I try to be as smart as I can, offensively, picking my shots, pullups, trying to get threes," Towns said. "Make the occasional drive to make them believe I'll still do it. I can't stop my aggression because of some fouls. My team, tonight, especially, needs me to stay aggressive. I really just kept my mindset, but just understanding [I needed] to pick my spots a little more selectively."

Thursday underscored something Towns has done of late that he wasn't doing earlier in the season: not letting foul trouble derail his night.

When the Wolves beat Boston on Nov. 6, Towns' night might have brought back some bad memories for fans, as he let the emotions of the game and his own foul trouble get to him. He finished with seven points and seven turnovers before fouling out.

Towns has fouled out of two games since then, but there have been a few key games where he has been able to dance around it effectively.

There was a victory at New Orleans when he played with foul trouble most of the game and had five in the fourth quarter, but he was able to avoid picking up a sixth foul and hit the winning shot.

Then there was Thursday, when his team was already lackluster on offense with Edwards down. If Towns wasn't his dominant self, Utah might have had a chance at an upset if he took himself out of the game with foul trouble.

But he didn't. He remained composed the rest of the night, turned in a dominant offensive performance while not fouling, and the Wolves got a relatively easy victory.

"After he weathered the foul-trouble storm, his defense really picked up, and I liked the physicality that he played with," Finch said.

Staying composed in November is easier than staying composed when the playoffs come around in April and May, and Towns will still have to prove he can do that after foul trouble and his emotions took him out of some playoff games the past few years. But for now, it seems as if he's making a concerted effort to make sure that doesn't happen.