Towns shows Wolves he can come through as a finisher, too

Time and again as this season progressed, Timberwolves interim head coach Sam Mitchell has put his trust and the ball in Andrew Wiggins' hands to create his shot or make a play with the game on the line.

In Sunday's careening 106-105 victory at Portland, it was Karl-Anthony Towns' turn.

Towns' short hook shot with 1.8 seconds reclaimed a victory the Wolves nearly squandered when they allowed Blazers guard Damian Lillard to complete a four-point play with 3.5 seconds remaining.

In an instant, the game swung, from the Wolves leading 104-101 to trailing 105-104 against an opponent that had won six of seven games, in a game that they had led by eight points with just 2:09 left.

"If this had been earlier in the year, we could have been a little flustered, a little rattled by that kind of moment," Towns said afterward.

Instead, they gathered themselves and set about finishing a three-game road trip — the last trip of the season — undefeated, after previous stops at Golden State and Sacramento.

"The thing I liked is we didn't panic when we went down one," Mitchell said. "We knew we had a timeout, and we knew we had 3½ seconds left. So we knew we had a chance to get a good shot. The thing about it is, we just wanted to get the best shot possible."

"I wanted to get him back to that right-hand hook," Mitchell said. "He had made his last three jump hooks. I felt like if we can get him back to that right-hand jump hook, that he can make that shot."

Mitchell felt even more confident when the Blazers came out of the timeout with a small lineup that put Aminu rather than Plumlee on Towns near the right side of the basket.

"He'd been guarding him all night," Portland coach Terry Stotts said about putting Aminu on Towns.

Towns caught Tayshaun Prince's sideline inbounds pass deep near the basket, turned toward the baseline and released a short hook over the smaller Aminu, silencing a Moda Center crowd that had been roaring since Lillard's four-point play.

"That was one of those moments my team just needed me to make that shot," Towns said. "I mean, it was great execution, we drew up a great play and I just thank my teammates for having the trust in me to make that shot."

The Wolves are 8-7 in their past 15 games, partly because they are establishing both Wiggins and Towns as players who can get their own shot and score when it matters most.

"That's big," said Wolves point guard Ricky Rubio, who intended to foul Lillard before he could get off a three-point shot but instead reached as Lillard started to shoot. "That's what you need from your guys at the end to win games. Having both of them, that makes a big difference. I hope we can grow from there."

This time, it was Towns' time at game's end.