KAT went for 62 and his coach immediately talked trash about him
Karl-Anthony Towns now owns the record for first-, second- and third-most points scored in a single game in Minnesota Timberwolves history. He set the record with 56 in a game back in March 2018, then followed it up with a 60-point effort in March 2022. The former Kentucky star then went for a career-high 62 points to break his own franchise record Monday evening, shooting a blistering 60.0% from the field (21-35) and 66.7% from three (10-15).
History made in Minneapolis. So why is it that head coach Chris Finch called Towns “immature” and said the Wolves “disrespected the game” immediately after?
Well, Minnesota lost the game 128-125 after being outscored 36-18 in the fourth quarter.
“It was an absolutely disgusting performance of defense and immature basketball all the way through the game,” Finch said. “It really didn’t ‘slip away,’ it had been there from the jump. This is what happens when you have this type of approach.”
Brutal.
Towns went for 44 points in the first half on 14-17 shooting and 8-9 from three, nine away from the NBA’s all-time first-half record (53) and two 3-pointers shy of the most in a single half in league history. Then he went 2-10 in the fourth quarter as the Hornets rallied to erase an 18-point deficit to pull off the comeback win.
“I mean there are lots of times when, just because you’ve scored two or three or four points in a row, or baskets in a row,” Finch said. “Obviously we’re going to try to feed a hot hand, look for a hot hand, but at some point we’ve got to get back to making the right play and doing the right things. There are a lot of ways to be immature and there were a lot of immature performances throughout the roster. We totally disrespected the game ourselves, we got exactly what we deserved.”
When asked if he felt Towns was looking to “hunt” for stats vs. playing winning basketball to close out the game, the Timberwolves head coach didn’t shy away.
“Absolutely,” he said. “For a while, he was going. But down the stretch, that kind of dried up for us. Um, yeah.”
The former Cat (KAT?) wasn’t in a celebrating mood after the record-breaking performance.
“Having a night like that on a loss doesn’t feel very good or historic,” Towns said.
The Timberwolves have the best record in the West at 30-13, but now own a two-game losing streak while sitting at 6-4 in their last ten games. The sky isn’t falling in Minneapolis, but they sure would’ve liked a win on KAT’s big night.
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