On March 15, Beijing time, the NBA regular season continued, and the Minnesota Timberwolves challenged the San Antonio Spurs away. With the score glued in the first half, the Timberwolves suddenly exploded in the third quarter, playing a 46-33 score in the single quarter to take a double-digit lead, and the team played steadily in the fourth quarter, and finally won 149-139.
As the team's star, Towns shined in this game, playing 36 minutes in the game, hitting 19 of 31 shots to achieve a game-high 60 points, in addition to picking up 17 rebounds and giving 3 assists. In the third quarter of the game, he was even more courageous, scoring 32 points inside and outside, becoming the key to determining the balance of the game.
After the game, Downs's wonderful performance quickly rushed to the national hot search list, triggering heated discussions among the media and fans. At the same time, the 60 points scored by Downs in this game not only set a new career high for single-game scoring, but also a single-game scoring record for league players this season, and also created a number of historical records. Like what:
1. Towns scored at least 40 points in a single game for the 11th time in his career, surpassing Love to become the player with the most 40+ points in Timberwolves history; he is also the only player in Timberwolves history to cut at least 50 points multiple times;
2. Towns scored 32 points in the third quarter, the fifth highest score in the league's history, the top four were Thompson's 37 points, Love's 34 points, Anthony and Gervin's 33 points;
3. In the first three quarters of the game, Towns had a total of 56 points and 14 rebounds, and he also became the second player to achieve this achievement since 2014, the last of which was Anthony;
4. Towns became the second center player to score at least 60 points in a single game after O'Neal in 2000.
As the 2015 champion show, Towns has been outstanding since entering the league, and has been selected for the All-Star and Best Team many times, but due to the team's poor record, he has not been recognized by fans, and even considered a data brush, but this season is undoubtedly Downs's highlight year.
So far this season, Towns has averaged 24.7 points, 9.8 rebounds and 3.7 assists in 62 games, shooting 53.1 percent from the field and 40.3 percent from three-point range. Under his leadership, the Timberwolves are currently in seventh place in the West with 40-30 losses and have a great chance of returning to the playoffs after a multi-season trip.
When people are discussing who exactly is the best center in the league, Downs is often the one who is overlooked, not because of his ability, but because of the Poor Performance of the Timberwolves over the years, but with the rise of the Timberwolves, Downs has every reason to be included in the "best center" discussion.