Karl-Anthony Towns forgettable half digs hole for Timberwolves

The Minnesota Timberwolves needed some offense from All-Star power forward Karl-Anthony Towns. Instead, he did not deliver. What he did deliver in Game 2 of Round 1 of the NBA Playoffs against the Denver Nuggets was a forgettable performance. Or hopefully, a night he can forget.

Already in the closing second in the first quarter, Towns had three turnovers, two personal fouls, and no points.  He did deliver six early rebounds, but without points from those rebounds, it was simply a wasted effort. By the end of the first quarter, the Denver Nuggets seemed to pick right up where they had left off in Game 1. Once more, the Timberwolves’ shots failed to fall. Once more, the Nuggets’ shots fell at will.

It was not until KAT drew a foul from Denver Nuggets power forward Jeff Green that Towns was able to sink two free throws with 23 seconds remaining in the first quarter of this one.  And without scoring out of Towns, the Timberwolves watched the Nuggets pull away slowly but steadily.

The Timberwolves’ offense collapsed in this one too

By early in the second quarter, the Denver Nuggets were on a 19-5 run, the Timberwolves seemed to be following Towns’ lead by losing the ability to sink shots. At 9:52 in the second quarter, the Timberwolves were shooting just 26.1 percent of FG%, and just 22.2 percent on 3Pt%.

The Denver Nuggets were sailing along by shooting just 61.5 percent of FG%, and 50.0 percent on 3Pt%. Despite jumping ahead by nine points at the end of the first quarter, the Nuggets came out in the second quarter and scored the next nine points coming out of the gates.

In a game in which the Minnesota Timberwolves needed to put Nuggets’ Nikola Jokic into foul trouble, it was Timberwolves’ Karl-Anthony Towns who reached three fouls before Jokic was called for his second.

The Nuggets bench crushed the Timberwolves bench in this one

Coach Chris Finch opted to start the Timberwolves’ best bench player Taurean Prince, hoping to get the offense going. That all backfired, as the lack of scoring from the Timberwolves’ bench all but crushed the Timberwolves when the rotations brought in players off the bench. Only Kyle Anderson (4 points) and Jaylen Nowell (2 points) were able to score off the bench for the Timberwolves.

Meanwhile, the Denver Nuggets bench of Bruce Brown (6 points), Christian Braun (2 points), and Jeff Green (9 points) seemed to have no problem finding their open shots.

One pregame prediction did seem to pan out as we expected veteran center Rudy Gobert to show up in this one, and he did. At halftime, Gobert had scored 11 points, six rebounds, one assist, and one block.

Game 2 – Halftime

The Minnesota Timberwolves have two more quarters to rally back. That will take a huge shift in the momentum, as the Timberwolves have not won a single quarter from the Nuggets in the last six quarters. The closest that the Timberwolves came was to tie the Nuggets 22-22 in the fourth quarter of their ugly loss in Game 1.

The Timberwolves need to turn things around quickly in this one.