Timberwolves challenge: Make more use of Karl-Anthony Towns as postseason nears

NEW YORK – After Friday's loss against the Lakers, Wolves center Karl-Anthony Towns offered a cryptic-sounding quote when asked about the Wolves' offense.

"I got a lot of things to say tomorrow at practice," Towns said Friday after the game. "I'm gonna go in there and do what I gotta do, speak up for our team. I know the words I say will help us win games. So I'm just trying to do that. That's all I'm gonna say. Keep it in the locker room."

The Wolves didn't have practice Saturday before they laid their biggest egg of the season Sunday against Portland, when Towns seemed disengaged from the offense while putting up just three shots. Foul trouble also didn't help his frustration level, and the Wolves lost to the tanking Trail Blazers while perhaps their best offensive weapon barely put up any shots.

Before Tuesday's win over Brooklyn, which clinched at least a play-in spot in the Western Conference, Towns and coach Chris Finch had a chat.

Finch took responsibility for Towns' low volume of shots on Sunday, and Towns made a few points to Finch about what the Wolves should be doing on offense — that they should be taking advantage of matchups presented by the two-big lineup they have. The Wolves did that from the first possession Tuesday, which was a Towns post up that turned into a basket.

The Wolves went back to that down the stretch when Brooklyn went small, and it resulted in four key points from Towns.

"One hundred percent we want to make sure that we had a matchup that we could go to," Finch said. "If they doubled, it would create open shots. If they didn't, which they didn't, he was able to punish that."

That strategy of posting Towns up more often is something Finch has spoken more of doing in recent days. One obstacle to doing so was Towns' health, and how he is feeling coming back from his right calf injury. He mentioned it had not been easy for him to move with the same "leverage" that he is accustomed to in the post.

"I'm still trying to get my leverage back," Towns said. "Every day I'm getting closer and closer to 100%. I feel comfortable. [Tuesday] was a great day for me to get that post work in a game and I think this is the most comfortable I felt in the post since I came back right now."

The other problem with the post-up game is it can often clash with the way Finch wants the offense to run. Possessions in the post require Towns to have the ball in his hands for seconds at a time, for him to be deliberate in his motions, often while teammates are just standing around the perimeter.

But at the same time, the Wolves have to lean into what they have, and what they have is a big lineup that can sometimes take advantage of matchups in post. Finch has often said the Wolves are a big team, and they need to act accordingly, even as other teams try to go small around them.

The Nets did so Tuesday, but the Wolves showed they have some moves up their sleeve when teams try to counter their size with smaller lineups. Finch wasn't shy about sitting Gobert in that situation and letting Towns go to work.

"We have that luxury right now," Finch said. "We have a lot of options to finish games, and we don't always just react to what the other team is doing, but we felt that we had an offensive matchup that we could also exploit."

That's one of the points Towns was making Friday. What fans saw was part of the process of figuring out how the Wolves will operate with these two-big lineups. Towns' injury delayed that process. Can the Wolves figure enough things out with only two games left in the season?

Towns thinks so.

"We're finally at a point at the end we can say we're finally getting to jell and play with each other," Towns said. "I've always thought we were special. I've been on the sideline long enough to see that we are special."