Karl-Anthony Towns' shooting woes continue in Wolves' Game 3 loss - ESPN

DALLAS — Minnesota Timberwolves big man Karl-Anthony Towns is having a historically difficult start to the Western Conference finals. After another rough night from Towns in the Wolves' 116-107 Game 3 loss to the Dallas Mavericks on Sunday, there was no sugarcoating it from his coach, Chris Finch.

«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 might have wanted to cover his eyes the most in the fourth quarter, when Towns went scoreless on 0-for-4 shooting (0-for-3 from 3) as Minnesota was outscored 14-3 in the final five minutes.

«I've got to laugh,» Towns said after the game. «I'm putting up to 1500 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 confidence-wise. Just got to keep shooting.»

Towns, who was benched for the last nearly nine minutes of the Wolves' Game 2 loss, is now shooting 27.8% for the series. That mark is the fourth-worst field goal percentage by any player through the first three games of a conference or divisional finals in the shot clock era, according to ESPN Stats & Information.

His 3-point shooting, extending back to the conference semifinals against the Denver Nuggets, has also been unprecedentedly poor. Towns is 4-for-32 (12.5%) on 3s in his last five games, which is the worst 3-point percentage over a five-game span among players with 30 or more 3-point attempts in NBA postseason history.

«I think KAT's got to just do a better job of maybe getting back to his old self, of finding