Minnesota Timberwolves: Wolf of the Week, Part Four

The Minnesota Timberwolves lost to the Morant-less Memphis Grizzlies in their only game of the past week.

Welcome back to the weekly Wolf of the Week column and what was the least-eventful week so far during the Minnesota Timberwolves season — at least in terms of on-court action.

It was already only a two-game week, but the Wolves ultimately played in only one game, and it was a tough one to swallow for the Timberwolves faithful.

They led for virtually the whole game, only to blow the 10-point lead that they took into the fourth quarter. However, this game wasn’t the story of the week.

Unfortunately, the Wolves had their second game of the week, also against the Grizzlies, cancelled due to COVID-19, and to make it even worse Karl-Anthony Towns was one of whom that tested positive. Towns  has lost multiple family members to COVID and still continues to be the Timberwolves leader on and off the court. Here’s to a speedy recovery.

Minnesota Timberwolves blow late lead to Memphis Grizzlies

Memphis Grizzlies 118, Minnesota Timberwolves 107

The Wolves were up by 10 going into the fourth quarter and expanded their lead to 12 before the Grizzlies went on a 24-4 run and never looked back.

The Timberwolves Big 3 of Towns, Russell, and Beasley combined for 78 points, but nobody else came to the party for Minnesota.

An even bigger problem was the 80 points in the paint allowed by the Wolves. That’s right: eighty! With Juancho in the game, the Wolves will always struggle to defend teams that play big and physical. The Grizzlies big man duo of Brandon Clarke and Jonas Valanciunas dominated on the glass and in the paint. This game was a microcosm of the need for the Wolves to address their massive problem at the 4.

Rookie Anthony Edwards needs to find his shot, to put it lightly. He has scored only two points over the last two games, and it came on a put-back layup. Since his misplay in the final seconds against the Spurs, Edwards hasn’t been playing with much confidence at all, leading to a season-low 17 minutes against Memphis.

Now, the Wolves sat at 3-8 coming out of the week — prior to the Martin Luther King Jr. Day loss to the Hawks — and need to find a way to right to ship because they are quickly running out of time.

Wolf of the Week: Karl-Anthony Towns

Towns finished the week with 25 points, 14 rebounds, three assists, and two blocks in the Wolves only game.

Although the stat sheet might not show it, Towns was the anchor of the defense. He consistently contested shots while Valanciunas did most of his work on the offensive glass an area where Towns basically had no help.

Towns has been very vocal that the Timberwolves need to begin taking pride in their defense before they are going to become a playoff team.

Devastatingly, Towns tested positive for COVID-19 on Friday and will miss a minimum of 10 days. The absolute focus is on Towns having a full recovery, of course; the virus has had a huge impact on Towns and his family, and nothing is more important than him regaining his health.

From a basketball perspective, KAT has been tremendous since returning to the Wolves and they desperately need him to help dig them out of this hole.