Karl-Anthony Towns had the saddest 62-point game ever

of minnesota timberwolves I cruise all seasons. The Timberwolves earned the No. 1 seed in the Western Conference early in the season and have yet to relinquish that seed, riding their way to the top of the standings on the back of Rudy Gobert's best defense in the league.

It wasn't long ago that the Timberwolves celebrated winning a play-in game like it was a championship. Their rise in the West has been the best story of the young season, but there is understandable skepticism about how their style will translate to the playoffs. On Monday night, Minnesota saw how a cozy night can quickly turn into a disaster.

Karl-Anthony Towns was having the game of his life when the Wolves hosted the Charlotte Hornets. KAT scored 22 points in the first quarter and 22 points in the second quarter, putting them on track for a historic night.

The Hornets made a huge comeback in the fourth quarter, overwhelming the Timberwolves 128-125.town will do It ended up being a historic night, but it happened for all the wrong reasons.

Towns scored 62 points on 21-of-35 shooting from the field and 10-of-15 from 3-point range. He grabbed eight rebounds, had two assists and turned the ball over seven times. The University of Minnesota entered the fourth quarter with a 15-point lead, but a combination of Towns' hero ball shot selection and Charlotte's strong shooting resulted in a crushing defeat in a game that had over 60 points.

Charlotte outscored Minnesota 36-18 in the final frame. Towns shot just 2-of-10 in the fourth quarter, making a few late shots as the lead slipped into his team's hands. Towns was also briefly pulled off the floor in crunch time, perhaps because the wind was strong or because head coach Chris Finch didn't like his defense.

After the game, Finch spoke passionately about his team in a press conference and seemed to be indirectly addressing Towns. “It was an absolutely terrible performance by defense and inexperienced basketball the whole game,” Finch said after the loss.

he continued.

“Obviously we're going to try to give the hot hand, but at some point we have to get back to playing right and doing the right things. There are many facets to the inexperience, and the members… There were a lot of inexperienced performances throughout. We completely disrespected the game and ourselves and got exactly what we deserved.”

Finch acknowledged that Towns has become a game of “trying to hunt the crowd.” The second half felt like Minnesota was clearly experimenting with Statpad Towns numbers, and the offense completely fell apart while the defense never got involved in the first place.

Teammate Anthony Edwards admitted after the game that he would have liked to have seen Towns score 100 points. He agreed with the coach's assessment that the Wolves played inexperienced basketball.

The town began to catch fire. Hornets announcer Eric Collins was losing his mind after watching KAT's shooting display.

Towns made his final basket with just over 5:30 left in regulation time. He will never score again:

KAT got another chance near the end of the match and sent an air ball with a tough look on his face.

Towns became the fifth 60-point player in the last 30 years to lose a game. He finished the game with a plus-minus of zero.

View full highlights of Towns' performance here.

“It doesn't feel very good or historic to spend a night like that with a loss.” Towns said After the match.

“There are no moral victories,” Towns said. “It was cool when we said that when we were 15 to 30 years old.

The Hornets started the game at 9:31. The Wolves had 30 wins and 12 losses. On a night when Towns showed why he's one of the highest-scoring big men alive, the Wolves left with a loss. Minnesota had a great season, but this kind of embarrassment will be hard to wash away.