Karl-Anthony Towns was having a night — 41 points and 14 rebounds, dominating the Oklahoma City Thunder in the paint and leading Minnesota to an upset win.
Towns was feeling it — and he was talking some smack. To Russell Westbrook. One of the handful of players in the league who is much better when angry, so coaches tell players not to poke the bear. Towns was poking anyway, along with Dario Saric.
That’s when Westbrook responded (via Jon Krawczynski of The Athletic).
Ouch.
Towns has been playing impressive ball of late — 36.4 points per game in his last five on 60.4 percent shooting — it just hasn’t lead to wins in Minnesota, which is why Westbrook’s shot stings. Towns has to do more than just put up numbers, he needs to do it in a way that leads to wins, as happened with OKC. Getting Robert Covington back from injury would help with that, but Towns has to be the leader.
