2. Karl-Anthony Towns (1)
Season stats: 34.7 MPG – 20.9 PPG – 11.5 RPG – 1.4 BPG – 52.9% FG – 35.6% 3PT – 86% FT
Weekly stats: 37.9 MPG – 22.7 PPG – 12.0 RPG – 0.7 BPG – 49% FG – 33.3% 3PT – 87.5% FT
It’s happened; Karl-Anthony Towns has finally been knocked off his perch as the leader of the power rankings after 4 weeks atop the leaderboards.
His place in the hierarchy of Timberwolves scorers has come under question of late, but Towns did himself no harm this week, he was just slightly bested by a certain bucket getting teammate.
Towns was the only starter who didn’t reach 20 points in the win against Orlando, and his meagre 11 shots prompted cries for KAT to receive more touches in the offense. Towns’ 18 points and 13 rebounds weren’t a bad effort by any means, however.
Towns struggled in the Miami loss, with his 14 points coming off 5-13 shooting, again a low number of shots for such a dominant offensive force.
KAT made sure to remind us all of his skill set in the win over Phoenix, however. The 7-footer was unstoppable, with Tyson Chandler, Dragan Bender and Greg Monroe all failing to make a dent in Towns’ dominance.
The big KAT posted 32 important points and 12 rebounds, and although his 12-26 mark from the field suggests his shooting game wasn’t at its peak on Sunday, the 26 shots that Towns was allowed to put up alleviated some of the fears of regression that some Wolves fans had.
The game was crucial for Towns and the Timberwolves, who need Towns’ confidence at sky-high levels if they want to maintain there fourth seed in the tough Western Conference.
A drop in the power rankings is never a good sign, but for Karl-Anthony Towns there was plenty to cheer about this week.