Zulgad: A sorry performance: Wolves embarrass themselves on many fronts in Karl-Anthony Towns' return
Three-plus months after trading Karl-Anthony Towns, the Wolves spent Thursday night celebrating his return and allowing him and the New York Knicks to destroy them in front of a national TV audience.
The Timberwolves’ decision to pay tribute to Karl-Anthony Towns in his return to Target Center on Thursday night was expected. Towns was the first-overall pick in the 2015 draft, spent nine seasons in Minnesota and was a four-time All-Star.
But there is a difference between a franchise paying its respects to a player, and feting that player as you would upon the night of his jersey retirement. This felt more like an apology for dealing Towns to the New York Knicks just before training camp than it did a welcome back moment.
The introduction of the opposing team at Target Center usually features public address announcer Jedidiah Jones quickly running through its lineup in a monotone voice. That was the case on Thursday — at least until Towns was introduced.
Towns didn’t just receive special treatment as Jones recreated the same introduction he got as the final player introduced off the Wolves bench. Towns also received a 90-second tribute video as Wolves fans gave him a standing ovation. The latter was nice, an organic response to a former star making his return, and a tribute video is fine. But 90 seconds is an eternity. A second video to highlight Towns’ community service might have set a record for paying homage to a guy you are trying to beat.
Then there was the game.
Whether too many Timberwolves players got swept up in welcoming back Towns, or decided Game No. 26 wasn’t all that important, the Wolves performed as if they had been instructed to play the role of the Washington Generals to the Knicks’ Harlem Globetrotters.
The Wolves gave the sellout crowd of 18,978 and a national television audience one quarter of competent basketball. Julius Randle, who along with Donte DiVincenzo came to the Wolves in the Towns deal, made 3-of-4 three-pointers and had 15 points to Towns’ three in the first 12 minutes. The Wolves held a 33-32 lead at that point. The remainder of the night was an embarrassment for the home team. The Knicks outscored the Wolves 101-74 in the remaining 36 minutes and had 41 points in the second quarter.
Towns finished with 32 points, 20 rebounds, six assists and was a plus-31 in 37 minutes, 38 seconds. Wolves center Rudy Gobert was a no-show, scoring three points, grabbing four rebounds and finishing as a minus-37 in 22:18. Wolves star Anthony Edwards was a non-factor in 33 minutes, scoring 10 of his 17 points in third quarter, when the game was decided.
The Wolves’ Keystone Cops impersonation drew the ire of the Target Center crowd, but that didn’t seem to bother the team.
Tim Connelly, the Wolves’ president of basketball operations, had to be furious. The Wolves had won six of seven entering Thursday to improve to 14-11, and seemed to have put an 8-10 start behind them, but the complete lack of professionalism in this one couldn’t be ignored.