The Timberwolves Have A Kat Problem

No, this story has nothing to do with a cat struggling to find a litter box. It has everything to do with Karl Anthony Towns, aka Kat, who can’t find the bottom of the net of his 3-point attempts at a historically low percentage in the NBA Playoffs.

In fact, things are so bad that over the past five playoff games, Karl Anthony Towns is 4-for-32 from the 3-point arc, for just 12.5%, which is the worst 3-point percentage over a five-game span among players with 30 or more 3-point attempts in the history of the NBA playoffs.

Yes, Luka Donicic, Kyrie Irving, Jason Kidd, and the rest of the Dallas Mavericks have done an excellent job finding a way to win the first three games of the Western Conference finals. But if you want to point out why the Minnesota Timberwolves haven’t won at least one game, there is no need to look beyond Karl Anthony Towns's struggles.

Clearly, the Timberwolves have a Kat problem, and if the team can’t figure out how to get Towns back on track in Game 4, the Wolves will most likely get swept on Tuesday night. 

While the Mavericks' defense has been excellent, and to this point, Jason Kidd has outcoached Chris Finch in the last five minutes of each game, it is as clear as water is wet that the Wolves are not winning largely because of Kat's struggles.

"He struggled, of course," Finch said after Towns scored 14 points on 5-for-18 shooting, including going 0-for-8 from 3 as Minnesota dropped to one game away from elimination. "It was hard to watch at times."

Finch is not one of those coaches who will sugarcoat anything, and his blunt responses to Kat's struggles hit home.

Here’s what Kat said after Game 3

"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." 

Kat has a three-point 13.6% for the entire Western Conference Finals series and has been benched numerous times during the fourth quarter.

Normally extremely reliable, Kat's struggles are one of the key reasons the Wolves are on the brink of a sweep.  The games have been close to this point, and it's one thing for Kat to have a bad game, but for him to have 3 consecutive bad games is something that the Timberwolves did not see coming.

Either Finch needs to pull the plug on Kat sooner in game 4 if he continues to struggle, or Finch will have to figure out how to slow down Doncic and Irving, who have successfully stalled the Timberwolves' swarming defense.