CHARLOTTE, N.C. _ In modern sports vernacular, if someone says a player is cooking or eating, they are doing the same thing _ dominating.
On Friday, Karl-Anthony Towns was the chef and diner at the expense of the Charlotte Hornets.
Thanks to a dominating performance from Towns, including a masterful third quarter, the Wolves overcame a slow start to earn a breezy 121-99 win over the Hornets at the Spectrum Center.
It was no mystery how they did it. Towns was unstoppable on offense, especially during a third quarter in which the Wolves outscored Charlotte 45-25, the most points the Wolves have ever scored in a third quarter in franchise history.
Towns finished with an eye-popping 37 points, 15 rebounds and eight assists, and in another encouraging defensive performance, he came away with four steals and two blocks. He did all this in only 28 minutes since the Wolves had the game in hand most of the fourth.
The Hornets tried to defend Towns by double-teaming him often when he had the ball inside the 3-point arc. Towns appeared in his element as a passer, not letting the double teams faze him and calmly throwing out of them to cutters.
With the Wolves (2-0) ahead by two at the half, Towns took his game to a whole other level, scoring 17 points in those 12 minutes including a pair of 3s. He was a perfect 5 for 5 during the quarter with five rebounds and two assists to go along with two steals and a block.
Friday marked the first time a Wolves player scored 30 points and had 10 rebounds in consecutive games since Kevin Garnett in 1999.
It was a less than auspicious start for the Wolves, who quickly fell behind as they struggled to score. Charlotte raced out to a 14-2 lead with the Wolves missing nine of their first 10 field goals.
Andrew Wiggins tried to find his shot early, but to no avail, allowing Charlotte to race out to the early lead. It was no coincidence the Wolves got back in it when Josh Okogie entered the game at the 6:33 mark, providing his usual energetic spark. It also helped that Towns got cooking on the offensive end. With the Hornets throwing their double-teams at him, Towns found cutters for easy baskets, with Okogie capitalizing on that multiple times.
Towns also found his way to the basket, muscling past a Charlotte team that was playing without Cody Zeller, who missed the game for personal reasons.
With Towns leading the charge, the Wolves found their offensive rhythm and erased most of Charlotte's lead by the end of the first quarter.
Towns picked up where he left off in the second, but the Hornets were making enough shots to stay in the game. They shot 53% for the half, including 7 of 15 from deep.
Then the third quarter happened, and all Charlotte could do was hang on as best it could as Towns did what he wanted on both ends of the floor.
