The Minnesota Timberwolves continued their struggles on Sunday evening. Having lost the first two games of the Western Conference Finals on their home court, they were unsuccessful in their efforts in Game 3, and are now one loss away from being eliminated for good. There have been issues aplenty up and down the roster throughout the series, but there is no player that has struggled quite like Karl-Anthony Towns.
Towns Shooting Just 13.6% From Deep Against Mavericks
Karl-Anthony Towns in the Conference Finals vs the Mavericks:
15-of-54 FG (27.8%)
3-of-22 3PT (13.6%)
0-3 recordThings aren’t going as planned for the “greatest big man shooter of all time.” 😳 pic.twitter.com/eIp7SRMvjo
— ClutchPoints (@ClutchPoints) May 27, 2024
The Wolves were one of the top teams in the entire league throughout the regular season, and Towns played a big part in that success. His 21.8 points per game were well off of his career high, but he was more efficient as a shooter than he had been since 2017-18. He shot 41.6% from three-point range on 5.3 attempts per, which placed him in the top-20 in the NBA for the year, solidifying himself as one of the best shooting big men that we’ve seen in recent memory.
That efficiency has gone out the window in the Western Conference Finals. After averaging 18.6 points on 39.4% from shooting from deep against the Nuggets in the previous series, Towns is down to 15 points per in the three games against the Mavericks, and his three-point shooting has been particularly bad. Towns has attempted 22 threes against Dallas thus far, and has made just 3 of them. That works out to a shooting clip of 13.6%.
Wolves Need Their Stars To Step Up In Game 4
Anthony Edwards:
“I still don’t feel like they can beat us bro.”
(via @sam_amick) pic.twitter.com/XHPwGRJtco
— Legion Hoops (@LegionHoops) May 27, 2024
If the Timberwolves want to keep their season alive, they’ll need Towns to step up in a big way on Tuesday night. But he won’t be the only one, as co-star Anthony Edwards has seen his performance regress in the first three games of the current series, shooting just 38% from the field overall. Minnesota will be facing elimination should they come up short again on the road in Dallas, which would be a bitter end to a promising postseason in which they eliminated the defending NBA champions.
Game 4 will be played in Dallas on Tuesday evening, and the Mavericks will enter the contest as the favorites. But the spread isn’t a drastic one, with just 2.5 points separating the two sides, according to the sports books.
