On Monday night, we witnessed one of the most dominant offensive performances of the NBA season, as Minnesota Timberwolves star Karl-Anthony Towns had his way with the San Antonio Spurs. Looking to continue climbing up the standings in the Western Conference out of the Play-In Tournament, every game is important for Minnesota.
Towns knows this and took his game to another level against a Spurs team that is only two games out of a spot in the Play-In Tournament themselves.
“I told Coach before the game, `Hey listen, we need this win. I’ll do whatever it takes,’” Towns said. “’If I need to play 44, 48 minutes, I’ll get it done.’ That was kind of the mindset I came in (with). I had to dominate. I had to be my best.”
He was certainly at his best on this night. The former No. 1 overall pick poured in a career-high and NBA season-high 60 points on the Spurs and made it look easy.
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Towns shot 19-of-31 from the field, knocking down 7-of-11 from 3-point range and 15-of-16 from the charity stripe. He grabbed 17 rebounds to go along with three assists and one steal as San Antonio had no answer for him.
“They were selling out to protect the rim with everything else we were trying to do,” Minnesota coach Chris Finch said. “He had the matchup, and they didn’t have an answer for him. We definitely needed it and he stepped up.”
As a whole, the game lacked defense. Both teams shot well over 50 percent from the field and made at least 13 3-pointers. Spurs forward Kelson Johnson tried his best to keep his team in the game, scoring 34 points of his own, but San Antonio ultimately fell 149-139. Dejounte Murray scored 30 as well.
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Spurs head coach Gregg Popovich has seen plenty of excellent performances in his time as a head coach and was complimentary of how well Towns played.
“Karl was fantastic,” Popovich said. “He drove it, he shot it — he always plays hard. He’s a hell of a player. It’s not like it was a surprise, but tonight he was special.”
Karl-Anthony Towns certainly had a special night and came up big when the Minnesota Timberwolves needed him most, and set a franchise record. But, his NBA-high of 60 points was matched rather quickly, as Kyrie Irving scored 60 against the Orlando Magic on Tuesday night to set a Brooklyn Nets franchise record and help get his team their fourth straight victory.
