Kristaps Porzingis Is Making Life Hell For Andrew Wiggins And Karl-Anthony Towns

Kristaps Porzingis and Karl-Anthony Towns are the consensus top two candidates for Rookie of the Year so far, and Zinger offered his freshman foil a rude introduction by swatting his layup attempt midway through the first quarter. It was one of six total blocks for the Latvian sensation in the first half, including this nasty rejection on reigning ROY Andrew Wiggins.

The Knicks took a 60-40 lead into the half, but neither player was lighting up the box score for their respective team. Towns was just 3-of-10 for six points, while Porzingis was 1-of-4 for five points. The Timberwolves, however, would make a run in the second half and close the gap to three but just couldn’t quite get over the hump. Porzingis’ shooting struggles continued after the break as he finished with 11 points on just 4-of-14 from the field, including an icy 1-of-6 from downtown.

But the Knicks were buoyed by Carmelo Anthony who just missed a huge triple double with 20 points, 15 rebounds and nine assists en route to what ended up being a gritty 107-102 win. Arron Afflalo also added 29 points for the Knicks. Towns would eventually come alive for Minnesota in the second half as he finished with 25 points and 10 rebounds on better than 50 percent shooting overall, while Wiggins chipped in 22 points but shot just 8-of-22 from the field and was 0-of-4 from behind-the-arc. The Wolves were hampered by poor outside shooting all night as they made just four of their 21 attempts from long-range.

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