The Minnesota Timberwolves have struggled to close games against the Dallas Mavericks in the Western Conference Finals. With their loss on Sunday, they are now facing virtually insurmountable odds trailing 3-0 in the series and head coach Chris Finch did not mince his words.
A big reason for their current predicament has been the poor shooting of their big man, Karl-Anthony Towns. At one point, Towns proclaimed himself the best shooting big man in NBA history. But, he has been anything but that against the Mavericks.
“He struggled, of course,” Finch said after Game 3, leaving the Timberwolves one game away from elimination. “It was hard to watch at times.”
On Sunday, he shot an ugly 5-of-18 from the field, continuing his historically poor shooting performance. Over the final five minutes of the game, Towns was 0-for-4 from the field and 0-for-3 from 3-point range.
The Mavericks outscored the Timberwolves 14-3 over that span, riding that to a 116-107 victory. While Towns was struggling, Dallas’s stars were thriving. Luka Doncic and Kyrie Irving combined for 21 points in the fourth quarter, outscoring Minnesota on their own.
“I’ve got to laugh,” Towns said afterward. “I’m putting up to 1,500 shots a day. Shot so well all playoffs, confidence extremely high. To be having these unfortunate bounces and these looks that are just not going in, it’s tough. It’s tough, for sure. I’m good confidencewise. Just got to keep shooting.”
Chris Finch hasn’t been leading the team on the court because of patellar tendon surgery has had to undergo. Micah Nori has been doing that, but there isn’t anything a coach can do once a key player is struggling as much as Towns is.
In Game 2, the All-Star big man was benched for nearly the final nine minutes as he wasn’t getting the job done offensively. He is now shooting 27.8 percent in the series, torpedoing the team’s chances of winning.
As shared by ESPN, that is the fourth-worst field goal percentage by any player through three games of a conference or division finals in the shot clock era. With Anthony Edwards also struggling at times, the Timberwolves haven’t given themselves much of a chance to win games with their stars falling short.
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