Take the league's only 60+ of the season! Downs blasted 7 three-pointers to slash 60 points to brush a new career high
Jokic fights with the Embiid immortals, attracting everyone's attention. The new wolf king Carl Anthony Downs cut 60+ between jokes and successfully stole the scene.
Time seems to be here today, back in time to the beginning of this century. In that era of traditional center sweat and friction, at that time we witnessed Yao Ming, O'Neal, Duncan, Howard and other top interior lines, fighting again and again. Some say that's the last glory of a super center. But now Jokic, Embiid, Downs, in a new way, bring the top center back to our sights.
In particular, Towns, from the original draft winner, the proud son of heaven, to the mutual pinch with Embiid, was ridiculed by Butler as a soft egg. In the past few years, injuries, new crown, Towns has experienced the darkest moments of his life, but now Towns, with a 60+ performance, proved that he is still the top of the league. Wolves are also under his leadership, rising strongly.
Downs slashed 60+ to set multiple records
Before the season began, no one would have imagined that the season's single-game leading scorer would belong to a center, let alone Carl Anthony Downs, who seemed to have been somewhat forgotten by everyone.
In today's game against the Spurs, Towns shot 19-of-31 from the field, 7-of-11 from three-point range, 15-of-16 from the free throw line, and had 60 points and 17 rebounds, the only player in the NBA to cut 60+ this season, and LeBron James and Trae Young have both scored 56 points per game this season.
In fact, if it weren't for the referee stealing the scene, Downes would have been able to catch up with Devon Booker and take 70+ stats. After scoring 32 points in the third quarter, Towns' stats at the time had come to 56. When the game reached the fourth quarter, just when everyone was expecting Towns to continue to break the record, he had just played less than 2 minutes, but he was blown by the referee for an offensive foul, and Towns, who was carrying 5 fouls, could only be forced to go down.
Fortunately, downs, who returned, did not lose his hand, a free throw, a three-pointer, helped him refresh the score to 60 points. While this is an era of scoring explosions, it seems like we haven't seen this kind of scoring performance for a long time. Especially for a center player, the last time a center in the league got that kind of performance was back in 2000, when O'Neal ruled. In addition to 60 points, Towns also had at least 15 rebounds, and he also became the third super center to play such a data after Chamberlain and O'Neal.
However, unlike O'Neal's dominance under the basket giants, Downs' scoring performance is full of the characteristics of the times. Because in today's game, Towns shot 7 three-pointers, and the data shows that Among the players who achieved at least 60 points, 17 rebounds and 7 three-pointers at the same time, Towns was the only one in history. Towns said he was a one-of-a-kind big pitcher, not a replica of anyone, and this night, he proved it.
Seeing Downes shoot seven three-pointers throughout the game may not be surprising to Timberwolves fans at all. This year's All-Star Weekend, in the encirclement of a group of top shooters, who would have thought that downs, the least optimistic before the game, Towns would stand out and win the three-point contest, and throughout the season, Towns' three-point shooting rate was as high as 40%, even for a guard player, this is quite good data.
Although many people complained that Towns liked to shoot three-pointers and complained that his style of play was too soft, when Towns made at least 10 three-point shots in a single game this season, he averaged 37 points and 14.3 rebounds per game, and the Timberwolves would have a better performance.
Towns' favorite three-point shooting point is at the top of the frontal arc, where he has made 146 shots this season, shooting a whopping 47.9 percent, and he made a total of six three-point shots in the area today. Nowadays, one of the characteristics of Downs playing is that he is becoming more and more magic ball, and today's game, he only has one shot from the middle distance.
While the three-pointers are getting better and better, Downs has not lost the dominance of the interior, with a height of 2.11 meters, rich personal skills, and downs shooting 63.4% in the paint this season. In today's game, Towns won 16 free throw opportunities and hit 15 of them. In fact, downs have been able to get 6.3 free throws per game this season, ranking 12th in the league, and Towns is not as soft as everyone thinks.
Downs steals the play of Emperor Jokic
Without Downs, today's NBA focus would definitely belong to Embiid and Jokic. Both of these are the league's top centers, direct competitors to MVP this season, and in the absence of star helpers for most of the time, they have led the team forward with heavy loads and played a pretty good record.
And such a showdown of top centers did not disappoint everyone, Embiid cut 34 points, 9 rebounds and 4 assists, Jokic had 22 points, 13 rebounds and 8 assists, both showed their strongest offensive weapons, shrimp heart is that the Nuggets once again proved to everyone why Doug Rivers is the king of reversals.
Needless to say, before today's game, everyone's feeling was that Towns had been left behind by Jokic and Embiid. Not long ago, the "The ringer" website, based on the overall performance of this season's players, selected the top 25 players of the season, resulting in Jokic ranking first, Embiid ranking third, and Downs, despite being on the list, only ranked 16th.
But back in 2017, everyone's impression of Downs is not what it is now. Before the start of the season that year, the NBA official website still had a general manager vote, when there was an option, if you want to choose a player as the cornerstone of the team, build the team, who will they choose at that time, the result is that 29% of the general managers chose Towns, ranking first, Antetokounmpo only got 21% of the vote, ranking second, and LeBron James only got 18% of the vote to rank third.
Meanwhile, Towns also got 28 percent of the vote on the choice of the best center, while the thick-browed guy, who was also the league's number one and second, only got 24 percent. Time has passed, in the past two years, the big eyebrow brother and the alphabet brother have won the championship, but Downs seems to be stuck in the quagmire, stagnant.
It was probably the darkest two years of Downs' career, and after Jimmy Butler left, Andrew Wiggins was traded and Towns was labeled a brush by more people. Even more tragically, Towns was infected with COVID-19 several times, and many of his family members died as a result.
It was Downes's toughest days, and injuries and quarantines affected the entire Timberwolves. In the 2019-20 season, the Timberwolves were 19-45, second-to-last in the West, and Towns played only 35 games, averaging 33.9 minutes per game, 26.5 points, 10.8 rebounds, and 41.2% three-point shooting.
In the 2020-21 season, the Timberwolves achieved a record of 23 wins and 49 losses, ranking third from the bottom in the West, and Towns played 50 games, averaging 33.8 minutes per game, and could score 24.8 points and 38.7% of the three-point crosshairs. Family members died one after another, his career suffered setbacks, and some people thought that Towns would collapse, but Towns eventually survived.
"Fear and self-doubt have always been the greatest enemies of human potential fulfillment, and time will tell," Said Downs, who kept motivating himself with inspirational quotes.
Speaking of last year's story, last season's Timberwolves had a protected draft pick in the top three picks, and if they dropped out of the top three picks, it belonged to the Warriors. At this time, the general team will choose to spoil, so that it is the safest. But at the end of the season, Towns led the Timberwolves to win consecutive games, and some people complained that Towns was too stupid, but they didn't know that the winning experience set the tone for the team's outbreak this season.
Today's Timberwolves are no longer the wolf that everyone remembers, or the wolf collapses four, and as the playoffs approach, they seem to be gradually showing their dark horse temperament. So far this season, the Timberwolves have a record of 40 wins and 30 losses, ranking seventh in the West and only 1.5 wins away from the Nuggets, who are sixth in the West. And after the All-Star, the Timberwolves achieved a record of 9 wins and 2 losses, the league first.
The Timberwolves' outburst is clearly inseparable from Downs' outstanding performance. Before the All-Star, Towns averaged 34.3 minutes per game, had 24.4 points and 9.7 rebounds, averaged 5.9 three-pointers per game, and shot 40.9 percent from the field. After the All-Star, Towns averaged 30.6 minutes per game, but could get 26.8 points and 10.7 rebounds, averaged 7.1 three-point shots per game, and shot 40.4% from the field.
Apparently, Downs is now living up to the expectations he had when he first entered the league. Unlike Embiid, who focuses more on killing and Jokic who focuses on omnipotence, downs today has another path towards top center, that is, projection.
After slashing 60 points today, Downs once boasted, "I don't think anyone can stop me, I'm the best big shooter ever." Maybe when it comes to this topic, someone will move out of Nowitzki, but at least now Downs is finally no longer confused. This belonged to Downs's career night, and he was entitled to utter such rhetoric.