Karl-Anthony Towns made his way to the podium on Tuesday and as he settled into a chair you half expected him to pull a hit list out of his pocket. For two days Towns was a 7-foot piñata, a pincushion for pundits who watched his play in the first three games of the Western Conference finals and instantly wanted to forget. As reporters began to question Towns about his play in Game 4, a 105–100 win that sends this series back to Minnesota, his teammate, Anthony Edwards, interrupted.
“He was,” Edwards said bluntly, “the reason we won tonight.”
Indeed. It was 25 points, five rebounds and a whole different approach for Towns on Tuesday. For three games Dallas had marginalized Towns, turned an All-Star into an afterthought, turned an All-NBA big man into a one-dimensional three-point shooter. Inside Minnesota’s locker room teammates implored him: Be aggressive. Enough with the three-pointers. Get to the rim.
