Knicks 133, Timberwolves 107: Over (Slightly After) It Started

What was shaping up to be a Karl-Anthony Towns homecoming to remember for everyone involved, very quickly became one to forget for anyone involved with the Timberwolves.

Karl-Anthony Towns returned to Target Center for the first time since being traded.

There, can I stop writing now?

What was shaping up as a joust between the league’s best defense since Thanksgiving in the Minnesota Timberwolves and the best offense in the New York Knicks took about a quarter and a half to settle the score and let everyone in the building know that one team came to play.

Before things got rolling, the red carpet was rolled out for Towns. As he ran out to warm up before the game, a relatively large crowd from other games that arrived extra early to observe warm-ups welcomed him with an ovation as he ran onto the floor with a smile on his face.

After shootaround, he stayed to take pictures and greet every fan and person there for him.

It’s how KAT was represented in his tribute, and rightfully remembered in his time in Minnesota.

I tap danced for this long. I might as well talk about the actual game.

The final score doesn’t represent how the game started. Believe it or not, the Wolves actually ended up winning the first quarter 33-32. Coming out of the gate, the defensive strategy the Wolves deployed on their former center probably looked familiar to everyone; start with a smaller player at the initial point of contact, and have your true center hover closer to the basket in case Towns decides to make a move to the rim. With Julius Randle and Rudy Gobert, respectively, it went swimmingly early on. Towns ended the first with four turnovers and both teams were humming to the tune of what was shaping up to be a fun back-and-forth game.

Why wouldn’t it be?

It’s pretty rare for the wheels to come completely off of a team at the NBA level, especially after an entire quarter of competent basketball. But it’s exactly what happened on national TV and in front of a Target Center that was packed to the rafters.

Transition defense completely evaded Minnesota, they started settling for jump shots left and right after starting the game hot from the field, and dramatic imbalance took place before everyone’s eyes in the form of a 26-2 start to the second quarter in favor of the Knicks, and finishing the period out 41-18.

It put a bow on a 20-point halftime lead, and completely punked the the Wolves completely out of the game.

“They kicked our ass in every department,” Head Coach Chris Finch said afterward. “We let go of the rope in the second quarter.”

The ass-kicking came at the foot of their former big man who just so happens to be an MVP candidate, and there weren’t many answers met by the frontcourt of his former team.

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Photo by David Berding/Getty Images

Wolf Killer KAT

After the first quarter in which he got into turnover trouble, there wasn’t much that didn’t work for Towns, and there wasn’t much that worked for anyone that saw time in the Wolves’ frontcourt.

He wrapped up the night with 32 points and 20 rebounds on 10-12 shooting (yes, he shot 83 percent).

The opposite side of that was a particular off night for Rudy Gobert, but Naz Reid and Julius Randle contributed heavily in their own ways.

The tidal wave began in the second quarter when Reid, a key piece of the defensive scheme for Towns as the initial, smaller player at the point of contact for the second unit, picked up three fouls in roughly 10 minutes, forcing him to come out of the game. Finch confirmed afterward that Reid needing to leave the game was a forced adjustment to the defensive scheme that brought Gobert over to the one-on-one matchup with KAT.

From there, issues ensued.

Towns has always killed it offensively when matched up against a center. The more you can make him think in a game, the better the outcome tends to be for the other team, which often comes from bringing double teams or shadowing him in the post. When you’re not able to bring said double or have slow low-man help (which is what ended up being the case), it unlocks everything.

“We were a step late everywhere defensively,” Finch said.

Gobert also downright played poorly. He finished the game -37 in 22 minutes, added three points, and got tortured on the glass with four rebounds to Towns’ 20. It was one of his worst games in a long time – likely since his first season in Minnesota in which he was battling injuries and protecting the rim at a subpar level relative to his normal self.

“I didn’t like my energy, my activity, my physicality,” Gobert mentioned afterward. “I thought I was absent.”

I think many would have to agree. But the beauty of an 82-game season is that you have 56 more.

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Photo by David Sherman/NBAE via Getty Images

Emptying the Notebook

• The Julius Randle conundrum is a reality. As brilliant as he can be at times, he can be equally as frustrating defensively, and the warts showed once again in transition. After posting a 15-point first quarter on 5-8 shooting, he continued to keep stopping the ball on offense, and it led to some issues that widened the gap. “We’ve got to get downhill with the mentality to create for others instead of always trying to score,” Finch said. Anthony Edwards added after the game that teams know the Wolves are Julius-Ant heavy on offense. It’s predictable, and it’s going to lose more games unless a solution is come to.

• Rob Dillingham had a weak game for what seems like the first time this year, and it’s not much of his fault. Because of Reid’s foul trouble, he came back into the game earlier than he typically would, and during an onslaught by New York.
• Anthony Edwards said after the game that the Wolves have no offensive identity and he doesn’t know what to do about it right now. Which is fair, it’s not really his job to figure it out. But this team was in a spot earlier in the year of trading buckets with teams and not getting stops, and now it’s the complete opposite. Where is the middle ground?
• Golden State just lost by 50 to Memphis. These types of games where things come apart happen, but only become a problem if they snowball. Lucky for both teams, they play each other on Saturday for a litmus test.

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Up Next

Wolves vs. Warriors on Saturday in a battle of teams that got blown out on Thursday night. Draymond Green put up a 0-0-0 statline with a -42, and will certainly be looking to rebound against Rudy Gobert.

Tipoff is at 7:00 PM CST.

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Highlights