MINNEAPOLIS (AP) — Karl-Anthony Towns has long stated his contentment with contributing in a variety of ways to Minnesota’s game, even if he’s not taking — or making — many shots.
The problem for Towns and the Timberwolves is the three-time All-Star center also has stymied their success at times.
In four postseason games, including the play-in tournament victory that gave the Wolves the No. 7 seed in the Western Conference and this first-round matchup with Memphis, Towns has 19 fouls.
He spent 3:56 on the bench in the first half of the fourth quarter in Game 3 on Thursday night after picking up his fifth foul, the stretch when the Grizzlies completed their comeback from a 25-point late-third-quarter deficit and took the lead for good. They won 104-95 to take a 2-1 lead in the series.
“We’re talking to him,” coach Chris Finch said. “It’s the offensive fouls that really are hurting us more than anything else. Those are the ones we’ve got to clean up.”
Towns had three offensive fouls in Game 3, twice when he was setting a high screen.
“Even crashing from the outside, I’ve stopped that just to possibly take any idea of giving me a foul out,” Towns said. “Just got to work through the adversity, honestly. That’s really it.”
Each time Towns was pulled after a foul, he brought a dark cloud of bad body language with him to the bench. His teammates are often quick to encourage him or lend an ear to his venting about the officiating, but in the seventh year of his career he ought to be well past letting frustration compound itself into another mistake.
His postgame answer to a question about keeping team spirits high in the wake of a devastating loss — “go home, drink some wine, and move on” — offered a sanguine perspective. His demeanor on the court suggested otherwise.
The previous two seasons were a wash for Towns, in light of the heartbreaking death of his mother from COVID-19, his own difficult bout with the virus and multiple…