Last night marked another chapter in the Minnesota Timberwolves’ rivalry with the Miami Heat. Whether the rivalry is between the teams, Karl-Anthony Towns and Jimmy Butler, or Wolves fans and Butler, every full-strength match against the Heat has become must-watch TV. Viewers may have watched in the past for the possibility of drama, but they can expect a top-tier grudge match between two of the best teams in the league.
The Timberwolves got off to a slow start in Miami. The Heat came out with a clear defensive plan to pressure Minnesota’s ball handlers and attack passing lanes. The Wolves had 7 turnovers in the first quarter. Some of them were unforced errors. But Miami’s ability to pressure the ball to force bad passes and anticipate a pass coming into a lane made things challenging on Minnesota’s offense. Butler played nearly the entire first quarter and looked like he wanted to send a message to the Timberwolves. He scored 9 points on 3 of 4 shooting, grabbed 4 rebounds and got to the free throw line for three shots. The Wolves ended the first half down 66-54 with 11 turnovers.
As we’ve come to be able to expect this season, though, the Timberwolves didn’t let a first-half deficit get them down. They tightened up everything in the second half, especially their passing and defense. The Wolves only had 2 turnovers in the second half and held the Heat to 42 points. They also held Butler to only 3 points, on 1 of 5 shooting. Minnesota did a great job of contesting his shots at the rim without fouling, preventing him from getting easy points at the free-throw line, which is a big part of his game.
Even more exciting for long-time Wolves fans? Watch Towns go head-to-head with Butler and successfully play bully ball against his former bully. Midway through the third quarter, KAT got on a roll with his dribble drive game. He used his strength and quickness on two different plays to blow through Heat rookie Jaime Jaquez, get to the rim, and score before any teammates helping could make a big difference.
Shortly after, Butler decided he had had enough of watching KAT score and decided to guard Towns. It worked at first. KAT got the ball in post-up position against Butler near the three-point line and immediately spun toward the baseline to get around him. The move was good, but Butler followed it perfectly and used his strength to stonewall KAT’s progress. By the time Towns picked up his dribble, Bam Adebayo had already sprinted over to trap KAT with a double team. Towns felt the pressure and made a bad pass, committing his only turnover of the game.
Crunch time was a different story, though. Towns and Jimmy entered the game with about five minutes left, and they continued to go at each other in the clutch. KAT made three incredible clutch plays with Jimmy as his primary defender.
The first play started similarly to the one that ended in a turnover. With the game tied 97-97, Towns got the ball in post position while near the perimeter. But instead of trying to drive on Jimmy, KAT waited for Anthony Edwards to cut around him by the sideline and acted almost as a screener with the ball. Ant’s defender got caught trying to get around Towns, which gave Edwards enough room to break free and have a clear lane to the rim. KAT dropped the pass to Ant perfectly in stride, and he launched for a huge dunk with little interference from Duncan Robinson, who came to help. However, Robinson made a smart business decision not to be on a poster and got out of the way.
On KAT’s second big play, he got the ball on the perimeter from Mike Conley and had a chance to go one-on-one with Butler. KAT used a pump fake and tried to get around Butler, then made a step-back motion to create space. Jimmy stayed home on all of KAT’s moves and got tight up to Towns’ body. KAT then took a small jab step forward, which knocked Jimmy off balance, giving KAT a wide-open shot that he drained.
Perhaps this was an offensive foul. KAT makes contact with Butler’s body with his shoulder during the jab step. However, offensive players are allowed to make contact with a defender as long as they don’t extend their arm, hook, or dislodge the defender. From the replay, it looks more like KAT gave Butler a bump with his shoulder. Butler either got knocked off balance because he was so close to KAT trying to go straight up, or he attempted to embellish the contact to sell a foul. Either way, it was a fantastic play in which Towns used both physicality and finesse to score on Butler.
The final and possibly coolest clutch play that KAT made came with just a minute remaining in the game. The Wolves were up by only one point, and Ant missed a pull-up three-pointer. The ball bounced off the rim to the left, where Butler was trying to box Towns out. Butler does a good job of putting his body in front of KAT, but he doesn’t even try to jump for the rebound for some reason. KAT takes advantage by leaping and snagging the ball from over Jimmy’s head.
By the time Butler reacts and attempts to turn and face guard, Towns is already using his long body to slither around Butler and into the paint. KAT notices that Bam has stepped up to be the second line of defense near the rim. Therefore, he throws a lob over his head to Rudy Gobert for a classic big-to-big alley-oop, which has become one of their signature moves.
Towns may not have been the leading scorer in the game, but he played excellent overall, and it was incredibly vindicating to watch him make several big clutch plays to help get a win over his former teammate and rival Jimmy Butler. It’s hard to say if KAT considers Jimmy as a rival or a bully. Paul George — aka Podcast P aka one of KAT’s real friends in the league — asked Towns about the situation on his podcast. KAT was quick to emphasize that he respects Butler and wants to give him his flowers. At the end of the segment, KAT notes that the two have seen each other at All-Star games and have been cordial. “I can’t hold grudges,” he said. “I ain’t got time for that s—.”
KAT is and always has been professional. Therefore, he may just be saying that because he wants to focus on basketball and doesn’t want to deal with any more drama. Still, I have to imagine it feels good for him, given everything Butler did to the Wolves. Even if Towns truly doesn’t care, it was incredibly vindicating to watch for me as a long-time Towns supporter as a player and person. I have a lot of empathy for KAT, especially considering that the internet essentially laughed at him when Butler was in the wrong. Butler used Machiavellian tactics to make everyone on the team look bad. He manipulated the media narrative to make himself look like the only reason he flipped out on everyone was because he “cares more.”
When Butler was playing in Minnesota, he became unsatisfied with the team around him and did everything within his power to get traded. The drama culminated before Butler’s second season with the Wolves started. While there are several different accounts of the legendary practice that threw the team into chaos, Jeff Teague, the team’s point guard that year, told what feels like the definitive version of the story. At least it was the funniest version because of the nuance with which he talks about it.
According to Teague, Jimmy hadn’t shown up to any team workouts in the offseason and didn’t show up to training camp until three days in. The day he showed up, everyone on the team thought Jimmy would practice with them. But “Jimmy ain’t practicing,” Teague said. “Jimmy’s laying over there getting stretched out, getting a massage, while we running laps, we diving for loose balls.” Jimmy didn’t participate until Tom Thibodeau called for a scrimmage, at which point Butler told Thibs he wasn’t going to play with the starters. Instead, he played against the starters with third-string players.
KAT and Jimmy already didn’t like each other, according to Teague, and Jimmy declared he would guard KAT. Jimmy stole the ball from KAT several times and ultimately won the scrimmage. Butler starts yelling at everyone in the gym, “You think they can win without me? I’m him, pay me.” Then he proceeded to pull off his warmup clothes to reveal a Wolves shirt with the words Minnesota cut out of it, so you can see his bare chest underneath. I find this part so intense and absolutely hilarious.
Teague jokes that he was laughing during the chaos until he remembered that he was a starter, too, which meant Jimmy was also talking trash about him. So he and the rest of the starters got upset and attempted to challenge Jimmy to a rematch, but Butler “ran” to the locker room. Thibs then made the starters play the second unit. After the starters beat them, they enter the locker room to try to find Jimmy to force him to come out for a rematch. However, he had already left the building. The rest of the Wolves finish practice, and about an hour later, they are in the locker room watching ESPN. They see Jimmy on TV talking to Rachel Nichols about the practice they had just had and how he had beaten the starters with the G-League team.
According to Teague, Butler had taped an interview trashing all of his teammates within about an hour of leaving practice. He wanted to get ahead of the media narrative to make himself look good, and ESPN was already broadcasting it. Jimmy was a terrible teammate, going out of his way to disrespect all of the starters and the franchise. He essentially made it impossible for the Wolves to negotiate for better returns in trades. Still, many people outside of Minnesota view Jimmy’s actions as justifiable and cool instead of toxic, selfish, manipulative, bullying behavior. From my perspective, it is pretty clearly the latter. If I had to guess why people outside of Minnesota don’t view it that way, it’s because Jimmy did a good job of manipulating the narrative in his favor when talking to Nichols, and people on the internet like to punch down when they have anonymity.
Because of all this, KAT’s three huge plays in clutch time of the 4th quarter while Jimmy was guarding him felt like somewhat of a full-circle moment. In 2018, Jimmy guarded KAT in practice and allegedly stole the ball from him a bunch to try to make the point that KAT wasn’t good enough to win without him. Now KAT is winning without Jimmy Butler and against him. Towns scored on him and rebounded over him. More often than not, Towns took advantage of the size mismatch he has against Butler and played bully ball against his former bully. If nothing else, this is a sign of growth for KAT and the Wolves organization, who have now put good enough starters around Towns that they can win against anyone, even third-stringers.
