A great NBA playoff game is like a glass of fine wine. A complex mix of flavors works together to create the finest product of the NBA year. Each team, well-aged through the regular season, each game provides fans with a different palate. Whether it be a hard-fought defensive game, an offensive outburst, or a back-and-forth duel between two superstars, we’ve all got our preferred varietal. To the layman’s tongue, some games simply leave a bad taste in your mouth. The Minnesota Timberwolves’ 104-95 loss against Memphis on Thursday night may have been one of those games.
During the postgame press conference, Karl-Anthony Towns was asked what he can do as a leader to help pick the team up. His response was unusual.
“Go home, drink some wine and move on to the next day.” He said. “That’s really simple. Just decompress, decompress.”
It was a strange response from KAT, especially considering he had one of the worst offensive performances of his career Tuesday night. His four shot attempts amounted to the least he’s taken in a game during the life of his career. One might expect him to say something along the lines of “I’ve got to do better” or “The team relies on my offense” or anything that had some semblance of accountability as the leader of this team. Instead, he offers up that he’s going to go drink wine.
His message, though unexpected, has a bigger scope than just what he plans to do to help the team. To me, his words weren’t directed at his teammates. They were for the fans.
The first piece of context to keep in mind here is that Towns knows exactly how important the fans have been this season. He’s spent most of his career in Minnesota playing non-competitive basketball in a quarter-filled arena. This year, Towns has gotten the opportunity to play in front of a city that is fully behind its team. The fans have totally changed the dynamic in the Target Center. Visiting teams, media members, and fans have noticed just how vivacious the Wolves’ home crowd and the fans have become as much of a part of the narrative of their success as the players.
I was in the arena on Thursday. As Memphis came storming back, all the energy that had been in the air all night got sucked out like someone opened the airlock on The Enterprise. The energy and excitement of the fans are as crucial as ever as the Wolves head into Game 4. The Timberwolves suffered a 28-point loss in Game 2, followed by a Game 3 that featured TWO massive comebacks from Memphis. I’m sure that Towns, like me and anyone else who has been paying attention to the Wolves for a while, can tell that the fanbase is starting to panic. I mean we’ve got local radio personalities calling for a Towns trade after his Game 3 performance.
Towns read the room. He said, in short, that he was going to go home and relax. With Timberwolves Twitter, the TNT crew, and even local media in Minnesota up in arms after a loss to put the Wolves down 2-1, Towns wants to go home and have a glass of wine. I think we could all use some time to sit back and relax.
There is a lot more to life than the game of basketball. No one knows that better than Karl-Anthony Towns. He’s had a lot to work through over the past two years. Though he is often criticized for a lack of composure or ability to keep his emotions under control, let’s be clear: He’s shown so much composure and emotional stability through his personal hardships. There is no magic cure to move on from grief just like there is no instant solution to fix all the problems on a basketball court. The game of basketball is as complex as the human psyche and sometimes the most important thing is to make sure you’re mind is right.
By no means should Towns have no culpability in Thursday’s loss. He’s the best player on the team. He was matched up against small defenders all night and only managed to only get four shots up. That can’t happen. There were a lot of positives from this last game for Towns and for the Timberwolves. KAT played some of the best defense of his career. Not only did he have five blocks, but he was playing with great energy and avoiding fouls on the defensive end. The offensive fouls are a story for another time.
Overall, the Wolves executed their game plan really well. The game should’ve been theirs but some missed shots down the end and some curious timeout management from Chris Finch let the game slip away. In the end, the atmosphere in the press room was actually not too sullen. Patrick Beverley acknowledged that the fourth quarter was “unacceptable,” but the whole of the game was a quality performance by the Wolves.
“Twelve points second quarter, 12-point fourth quarter is unacceptable,” Beverley said. “We’ll look at the film. We’ll get better at that. We generated the shots we wanted. We defended well. They only had 104 points. So, it looked bad, but it doesn’t feel as bad as it really was.”
This series is far from over. The Wolves know that they can compete with this team. That sentiment alone is cause for celebration. The Grizzlies were the second-best team in the league this season. The seventh-seed Wolves stole game one on the road and now have an opportunity to return to Memphis with the series tied 2-2. A Game 3 loss is no cause for panic for the Timberwolves.
Strategically, Minnesota solved the hardest piece of the Memphis puzzle on Thursday night as they held Ja Morant to just 5-of-18 from the floor. Part of that strategy was making him work on the defensive end. The next step is for the Wolves to maximize that weak point in the Grizzlies’ defense. Beverley can’t be the only one who is attacking Morant. The Wolves have far better offensive players who need to take advantage when they’ve got the mismatch.
This series is still within reach for the Timberwolves. However, tonight is a must-win. If the Wolves return to Memphis tied 2-2 then it’s a three-game series and it’s anyone’s for the taking. Let’s hope that Towns comes back relaxed and decompressed so that his mindset is better for the Game 4 showdown.
