Karl-Anthony Towns rises to challenge with playoff career-high 33 points as Timberwolves even series with Memphis

Karl-Anthony Towns spent the days ahead of Saturday’s Game 4, first round tilt in a state of anger. He was just plain mad. And why wouldn’t he be? He’d stunk.

The playoffs have not proven kind to the all-star center, who would either not resemble himself whatsoever or disappear entirely on the brightest stage. Poor decision-making, foul trouble, an inability to handle double teams — there was a spotlight on all of his warts. The all-star center was fairly being shredded by the media — local and national alike — for his porous performances when it mattered most.

Players have two choices in that situation — shy from the criticism and the challenge, or tackle it head on and do everything in your power to be better.

Towns chose the latter Saturday. With Minnesota’s season likely on the line, the big man finally came through.

Towns was everything for Minnesota as it finally fended off Memphis in a fourth quarter, downing the Grizzlies 119-118 at Target Center to even the series at 2-2. Game 5 is Tuesday back at FedEx Forum. The big man finished with 33 points on just 17 shots to go with 14 rebounds.

That’s answering the call when the phone is ringing loudest.

He was aggressive from the outside, attacking his matchups with fervor and quickness, so as not to allow the Grizzlies to load up their help defense. That rendered much of what Memphis has done to take him out of the series moot.

On his drives, he made the right play, kicking out when needed or going strong to the rack to finish or draw free-throws. At other points, he simply rose up over the defender to knock down jumpers.

That’s the Towns that Minnesota needs if it’s to pull off the series upset. He has to be the best player on the floor.

“When I caught the ball, I was angry. Just a bunch of rage and trying to find ways to just dominate regardless of what they throw,” Towns said. “A triple, quadruple (team), coach comes on the court and guards me as well. I don’t care. Just find ways to put the ball in the bucket.”

Towns found the proper balance of kicking out to teammates and getting his own shots. Most importantly, he did everything quickly and decisively, with generally the proper level of aggression and less of the “stray voltage” — as dubbed by Minnesota coach Chris Finch earlier this season — that often leads to foul trouble.

Instead, it was Towns sending one Memphis player after the next to the pine as they racked up calls while he racked up free-throws — 17, to be exact.

Finch said the goal for Towns was to enter Saturday’s contest both ticked — well, a synonym for ticked, anyway — and loose. Mission accomplished. You knew coming into the game that Towns was going to be aggressive after taking just four shots in the Timberwolves’ Game 4 defeat. What you didn’t know was what that aggression and anger would lead to.

Towns was aggressive in Minnesota’s play-in game against the Clippers. That resulted in bad shots, turnovers and fouls. A performance like that would’ve sunk the Wolves on Saturday.

But that wasn’t him in Game 4. He was the opposite of wild — he was focused. There was a purpose to everything he did. He took what had been eating at him for days and manipulated it into a powerful performance.

“He played with a lot of emotion, which is what he needs to do because it fuels his game,” Finch said. “But he channeled it into his game, and not elsewhere.”

Towns acknowledged he’d been in this spot before. Leading into Saturday’s game, he decided to get through the rough patch by leaning on his support system — his family, friends and girlfriend. He focused on what makes life special. He spent time with his niece and nephew — who don’t have time for him to be upset.

Those things all seemed to center the center, who appeared to be at peace with his play Saturday.

“I think for me just channeling my energy and my anger more to just positive energy and putting it to my family and just taking a chill pill and calming down,” he said. “Understanding next game there’s another chance, and after that another chance to go out there and show who I am.”

Not a player who can be described as “soft” or “dumb” by national onlookers — but rather supremely skilled and dominant. That’s the player Wolves’ fans have come to know, and that’s who Towns was again on Saturday.

“I saw the best big man in the league tonight,” Anthony Edwards said.

The Wolves needed it in front of another packed, raucous Target Center arena, which certainly rose up to its playoff moment over the 50-hour stretch featuring two pivotal contests.

Minnesota again built big leads, much like Game 4, but Memphis again rallied back time and time again. The Grizzlies won’t go down easy. Minnesota must put them down.

Even in a game where Towns played so well, Memphis still worked its often double-digit deficit down to as little as one point in the fourth frame. But then Towns would always find an answer, including an after-timeout play in which Finch dialed up an off-ball screen for Towns to get a 3-point attempt — the first time Minnesota has run such an action in some time.

Coming out of the timeout, Towns looked across the floor at his father — Karl Sr., who was sitting courtside — and said, “I’m going to score this.”

He indeed drilled the triple at the top of the key to put Minnesota up four with 5 minutes, 38 seconds to play.

That was one of few plays Minnesota drew up down the stretch.

From there, it was a lot of fruitless isolation 1 on 1s, which cracked the door open for the Grizzlies. Tyus Jones — who again played so well — missed a potential game-tying look with 10 seconds to play. Anthony Edwards then hit a pair of free-throws to extend the lead back to five.

At that point, Timberwolves fans erupted into a “Wolves in six” chant, suggesting Minnesota will close the series with two more wins. Dillon Brooks responded to the cheer with a triple to trim the deficit back to two with six seconds to play.

But, fittingly, it was Towns who iced the game at the free-throw line with a pair of makes. The game, he noted, was over the second he was fouled.

“I wasn’t worried about it. I knew. It ain’t really much to say, I just knew those were in,” Towns said. “I didn’t go up there with any nervous energy. I was just thinking about what I was going to eat after.”

He refused to shy away from the moment — and expects many more like it to come.

“I just did my job,” Towns said. “That’s really it.”

Briefly

The game was interrupted in the third quarter due to another on-court protest.