Minnesota Timberwolves' Karl-Anthony Towns edges Trae Young, Luke Kennard to win NBA 3-point contest

CLEVELAND — Karl-Anthony Towns demanded an answer as he bounded into the interview room following the 3-point contest at Rocket Mortgage Fieldhouse on Saturday night.

«Who bet against me?» Towns asked with an ear-to-ear grin.

Whoever did, lost.

Towns, thanks to a record-setting 29 points in the final round, emerged as the winner of the 2022 3-point contest, edging out Atlanta Hawks guard Trae Young and LA Clippers guard Luke Kennard.

Towns, who said he lobbied the league for years to participate, barely escaped the opening round of the competition, taking a deep breath before burying his final shot, which turned out to be just enough to advance to the final round.

From there, he took off, although he was mad afterward that he blew a chance to get to at least 30, the number he expected would be needed to win the contest.

«I'm super happy to win,» Towns said. «It's great, but I just have such high standards for myself.… I'm the biggest critic of myself. There's no writer, no blogger, no one who could critique and be more harsher on their game than me on my game. So I was so messed up about not getting the 30.… I thought 30 was what I was going to need to win in the final round. I was able to scrape by with 29.»

Towns wore a chain in honor of his late mother, Jacqueline, after the league made an exception to its policy prohibiting jewelry from being worn during the event. Jacqueline Cruz-Towns died due to complications from the coronavirus in April 2020.

In Saturday night's final round, Towns flew around the arc and set a mark that, ultimately, Kennard and Young couldn't reach.

Things went according to script for Towns, with his preference being to go first and set a high score for the others to chase.

«I told Luke Kennard