Karl Anthony-Towns dropped a massive performance against the Charlotte Hornets as he scored 43 points in the first half. He broke Kobe Bryant’s 42-point record which happened 18 years ago against the Toronto Raptors.
However, unlike Bryant, KAT failed to take his team to victory against the Hornets. It was fascinating to see the Timberwolves blow out the Hornets in the first half before eventually losing to them.
At one point, the Timberwolves had an 18-point lead over the Hornets in the first half as most people at the Target Center thought that the Timberwolves would cruise through. Anthony-Towns became the first player to suffer a defeat even after scoring at least 60 points in a single game.
Anthony Edwards appeared at the post-game press talk where he didn’t mince his words. “We weren’t focused. We weren’t focused from the jump, at all. KAT [Towns] just had a great night but we weren’t focused at all. … Once he hit his first six, or seven shots, I think everybody was pretty much trying to see him go for 100 points. I knew I was.”
KAT added 15 more points to his 43 from the first half and led the Timberwolves to a 107-92 advantage heading into the final quarter. However, it all fell apart in the final quarter as the Hornets outscored the Timberwolves 36-18 as Karl Anthony-Towns started missing his shots uncharacteristically.
They tried Anthony Edwards in the last quarter but Ant-Man hadn’t found his rhythm throughout the entire game as the team was massively relying on KAT to deliver. Anthony Edwards also finished with nine points from 3 out of 11 shooting while seven of his 11 assists were for KAT, who had a hot hand on the night and scored 62 points. Edwards felt that KAT was trying to match Wilt Chamberlain’s 100-point record from 1962.
The Timberwolves lost the match 128-125 and their coach Chris Finch also highlighted the areas where they lacked massively in the game. He pointed out the ‘disgusting’ defence and also called out the players for playing ‘immature basketball’.
“It was an absolute disgusting performance of defense and immature basketball all the way through the game. It really didn’t slip away. It had been there from the jump. This is what happens when you have this type of approach,” Finch told the reporters after the game.
