Breaking down Karl-Anthony Towns’ defense against the 76ers

Basketball fans were treated to a Karl-Anthony Towns versus Joel Embiid showdown on Tuesday night as both big men put up impressive numbers. Let’s take a look at the good and the bad of Towns’ defense against the 76ers.

Karl-Anthony Towns has not been a good defender over the first two-plus seasons of his NBA career. Everyone knows that, and if they didn’t, ESPN play-by-play man Ryan Ruocco made sure to point out that Towns was the second-worst center in defensive box score plus-minus during Tuesday night’s broadcast. (According to ESPN.com’s own Real Plus-Minus, Towns is 68th out of 73 centers in Defensive Real Plus-Minus.)

Back at the end of October, I argued that Towns’ defensive issues could be fixed, and a toxic combination of lack of awareness and occasional lapse in effort has led to wildly inconsistent defensive play from the former Rookie of the Year. This is still true, but it also continues to be an intense roller coaster ride for his teammates, head coach, and fans alike.

On Tuesday, Towns was tasked with guarding Joel Embiid, who, along with Towns, Milwaukee’s Giannis Antetokounmpo, and New York’s Kristaps Porzingis make up a quartet of eminently talented young forwards and centers. Towns has struggled with dynamic seven-footers this season, most notably Anthony Davis (a different sort of player than Embiid, of course), so it was anyone’s guess as to how the matchup with the Sixers would shake out.

Both players finished with impressive, albeit very different, stat lines. Towns had 19 points on 6-of-16 shooting, 16 rebounds, four steals, and three blocks but didn’t find his offensive game until the second half. Embiid tallied 28 points on 8-of-16 shooting with 12 rebounds and eight assists.

Towns actually more than held his own in one-on-one situations with Embiid, proving that playing up (and down) to his competition continues to be a real issue.

This first clip was, chronologically, the first of all of the plays that we’ll take a look at. This was early in the game, and to this point, Embiid had done the majority of his damage against Taj Gibson and Gorgui Dieng.

Dieng is assigned to guard Embiid, but Towns does an excellent job rotating over to help off of Richaun Holmes, meeting Embiid right at the edge of the paint. The Sixers big man executes a beautiful Eurostep, eluding Towns and finishing with a dunk. Of course, if KAT simply walls up and doesn’t jump — even if he doesn’t move his feet at all — he would have had a shot at blocking the shot attempt, or at least not allowing an easy dunk.

But things got much, much better from here.

There’s literally nothing special in this sequence except that Towns doesn’t fall for a series of fakes or give any ground in either direction to Embiid. Just good, solid post defense. (Minor quibble: another non-box-out from KAT. He’s lucky Joel didn’t decide to follow his shot to the rim.)

Remember when Towns got into the popcorn machine against Embiid’s first half Euro-step? This time, KAT stays down and rejects the shot in the paint…

Awesome job.

Next up, Towns forces Embiid to use his left hand along the baseline, leaving him no room to squeeze a shot up against Towns. He absorbs the contact but doesn’t swing down with his arms, avoiding a potential foul call. Solid job once again by KAT.

Below is one more solid possession when Towns simply doesn’t try and do too much. If this shot had gone in, it still would have been a good individual defensive effort.

This last clip is one of the more impressive plays that Towns had throughout the course of the night.

While he bites a bit on the initial shot-fake, Towns keeps his feet and recovers into solid guarding position. He forces Embiid to his left, and Taj Gibson slides into the middle of the lane to further deter the Sixers center from a free run at the rim. As Embiid continues down the right side of the key, Towns doesn’t fall for another fake to the middle and stays right on Embiid’s tough, fadeaway jumper on a left-shoulder turn.

Too often in Towns’ young career has he fallen for obvious fakes. In this case, he knew that Embiid didn’t want to go middle and forced him into a difficult shot.

Towns had a series of encouraging defensive plays in this one. And it was more than just flashes; KAT was a plus-defensive player on more possessions than not.

At the end of the day, Embiid put up more points on the same number of shots, make a pair of clutch free throws with under 15 seconds remaining in regulation, and got his team the win. But that doesn’t take away from an overall encouraging performance from Towns.

Next: Comparing Andrew Wiggins' season to other max players

At the risk of sounding like a broken record, let’s go back to the October article: consistent effort. The understanding of rotations and positioning seems to be beginning to click for Towns. Now, can he do it on a consistent basis? That remains to be seen, but the ultimate success — or failure — of this Timberwolves team will be directly affected by Towns’ defensive performance.