Karl-Anthony Towns’ Greatest Opponent Right Now Is Himself

Through 1.5 quarters, the Minnesota Timberwolves held an eight-point advantage over the Los Angeles Lakers and Karl-Anthony Towns had been the preeminent player in a battle among three All-NBA stars. But Reggie Miller sensed impending trouble might await them.

“That’s two quick fouls on Karl-Anthony Towns,” Miller said after Towns picked up a foul trying to contain his frontcourt foe, Anthony Davis.

“And we know what happened last year in the Play-In Game in Minnesota,” Kevin Harlan replied. “Now, they won, but this is a story for Towns.”

For a while, Towns and the Timberwolves delayed the impending trouble that Miller and Harlan cautioned. They entered halftime leading 60-49, shepherded by Towns’ 17 points (5-of-5 shooting), six boards, four dimes and two swats. Even deep into the third quarter, Towns sported just three fouls and Minnesota’s edge had climbed to 12 at 84-72.

Then, LeBron James rejected a screen, caught Towns out of position, barreled to the rim, and drew a fourth foul on the fellow former top overall pick. Towns exited the game. He didn’t score again, ending the night with 24 points and only attempted two more shots over the final 20 minutes of game time, including zero shot attempts during the overtime period.

As Towns took a backseat in fear of fouling out, the Timberwolves’ lead steadily shrank. By the end of the third quarter it had been trimmed to seven. Forty-five minutes later, it was spun into a six-point loss after Los Angeles sealed a 108-102, overtime victory. As such, the Lakers are the No. 7 seed, slated for a first-round date with the Memphis Grizzlies, which begins Sunday. Minnesota, meanwhile, heads to a do-or-die game Friday against either the Pelicans or Thunder, hoping to preserve a playoff berth amid a turbulent season.

Without any other context, the Timberwolves, down Rudy Gobert, Jaden McDaniels, and Naz Reid, pushing the fully healthy Lakers to overtime on the road is an admirable performance. Towns’ efforts were integral to that. For 33.5 minutes, he was sensational. He bullied Los Angeles’ undersized perimeter stoppers on switches as a driver, rained in nonchalant, buttery long balls, and picked apart help defenders with slick, nifty playmaking when they collapsed his direction.

Most impressive were his contributions as an interior defender, influencing and rejecting numerous shots around the rim. His activity and attentiveness popped. Los Angeles scored 73 points in his 41 minutes, compared to 35 points in 12 minutes without him. He looked like a two-way superstar backpacking a tumultuous, shorthanded team to the playoffs. However, the foul count and his fear of fouling out emerged as his stingiest opponents, an all-too-familiar theme for him.

In so many of these postseason moments the last two years, regardless of how well Towns is playing, there’s often a nagging worry about something self-imposed derailing him. During last season’s Play-In Game, saddled by foul trouble, he logged 11 points in 24 minutes before fouling out, despite Minnesota ultimately defeating the Los Angeles Clippers.

Against the Grizzlies in Round 1, he averaged 4.2 fouls per game, which watered down his minutes in Game 2 (28), Game 3 (33), and Game 5 (35). Minnesota lost each time. This season, his 5.5 fouls per 100 possessions tied a career-high. Offensively, toeing the optimal line between grace and physicality continually escapes him. Defensively, he struggles with knowing when to bow out of a play to prioritize the long-term.

The foul against James on Tuesday is a perfect encapsulation of the latter trend. Towns was the lone big man in the eight-man rotation. Minnesota outscored Los Angeles by 18 points during his 41 minutes and was outscored by 24 the 12 minutes he sat; that’s a ridiculous split and emphasizes his superlative nature much of the evening. It exacerbates why he cannot make that decision against James. Live to fight another play and simply concede James the bucket. Doing so would allow him to keep dominating without hesitation creeping into his thoughts or sporadic playing time disrupting his flow.

Even if some iteration of Gobert, McDaniels, and Reid were available, he’s still best served staying put, let alone when his importance is heightened so substantially. This is his eighth season. He’s 27 years old and squarely in the heart of his career. He has to better recognize the context.

I understand how challenging it presumably is to reject instinct. With such a shallow cast of big men, another Timberwolf is not enforcing the paint like he can. His duties as a rim protector ballooned on Tuesday and reorienting the approach a second time, on the fly, is a daunting task. But it had to be done.

Following the loss, Towns told reporters that playing with five fouls affected how he approached his offensive touches and possessions. He didn’t want to pick up a cheap sixth foul on a flop in order to remain in the game and help his team.

It’s shrewd of Towns to be conscious of that threat, as defenders absolutely look to embellish contact once a player is in foul trouble. Yet I think his inability to straddle the fence further illuminates an underlying shortcoming of his game that I mentioned earlier: balancing grace and physicality. His passiveness over the final 19 minutes should not necessarily be the primary area to criticize, so much as the events preceding and causing it, which have manifested at key spots the past couple years for the Timberwolves.

That said, throughout the final 13.5 minutes he played, his inactivity plagued the offense, especially with Anthony Edwards struggling so much with his own shot-creation all game — even more-so after a hard fall left him with a banged up shoulder. Towns removed himself from the action entirely or failed to establish suitable position in the mid-post or around the nail. Sometimes, that passivity occurred against Davis, who, to his credit, excelled denying entry passes and extending Towns away from the hoop. If a Davis flop costs you the chance to close, so be it; the officials can call it if they wish — Davis going to the floor on a rebound attempt and drawing Towns’ fifth foul surely was lodged in KAT’s mind after. That’s a much different threat than, say, Austin Reaves or Dennis Schroder’s embellishment being the final straw.

By going from tone-setter to on-court spectator, his autonomous disappearing act perhaps impeded Minnesota’s possessions as much as had he picked up his sixth and been sitting on the bench. The Timberwolves scored 21 points over the final 19.5 minutes after he tallied a fourth foul, the precise moment his imprint on the night and the tenor of the game began shifting. The roadmap of an already tenuous offense evaporated.

Towns can be a maddening player to figure out. With three All-Star nods and two All-NBA honors on his resume, he is a marvelous player and one of the most versatile, talented offensive bigs to ever play in the league. He has delivered at vital junctures previously. The same day Gobert struck Kyle Anderson and McDaniels broke his hand punching a wall out of frustration, Towns dropped 30 points (on 69.3 percent true shooting) in Sunday’s victory over the New Orleans Pelicans to keep Minnesota in the 7-8 Play-In matchup rather than dropping to 9-10. That’s big-time onions.

In a Game 1 upset road victory over Memphis last spring, he recorded 29 points (71.8 percent true shooting), 13 rebounds, three assists, and one block. A week later, he helped even the series at 2-2 behind 33 points (67.4 percent true shooting), 14 rebounds, three assists, and one block. Those are also big-time onions.

Towns has played in 13 career postseason games. Eight of them are over the past year. The ebbs and flows are all learning experiences. Maybe, these sort of instances are extinguished as he extends his playoff history; that is not uncommon for players. The formula for the struggles of his 2023 Play-In were ominously similar to his 2022 Play-In foibles, however.

That is the vexing part. The frustrations are amplified by all the glimmering greatness he puts on display, and leaves everyone, likely himself included, yearning for more. The good news for Towns is Friday presents an opportunity to make the necessary adjustments and deliver the Wolves to back-to-back postseasons for the first time in 20 years.