TORONTO _ Karl-Anthony Towns pulled up just to the left of the top-of-the-key, followed through on a 3-point attempt and held his wrist out as the ball arched to the rim late in the third quarter Monday.
The shot rotated through the air and hit nothing but net _ except it didn't go through the hoop first.
Scotiabank Arena broke out in laughter as Towns hung his head dragged his right arm back to his side. Then he motioned to the bench to get him out of the game.
Towns appeared out of the game at times even when he was on the floor on Monday as the Wolves, playing without injured Andrew Wiggins, fell to the Raptors, 112-105. The Wolves have lost their first three road games to start the season.
Towns appeared bothered by the Raptors' physical play from Serge Ibaka and Jonas Valanciunas most of the night and finished with 14 points on just 5 of 17 shooting while Kawhi Leonard turned a tour-de-force performance for the Raptors _ 35 points on 15 of 23 shooting.
When the Wolves made a late push and cut a 17-point Raptors lead to five, it was Leonard who struck the final blow with a running mid-range jumper to put Toronto up seven.
The Wolves didn't have the energy to match the Raptors in the opening salvo. They fell behind 20-9 over the first seven minutes with all the starters in the game. Leonard made his presence known all over the floor, driving with ease to the basket, hitting a pair of 3-pointers and making a diving steal.
Towns committed three first-quarter turnovers while Josh Okogie, who got the start in place of Wiggins (right quad contusion) went for 0-for-7, though four of those misses came in one face-palm inducing sequence in which Okogie kept rebounding his own misses but couldn't make the put-backs.
Just when it appeared as if the Raptors might run the Wolves out of Canada, the bench came to the rescue. In the last few minutes of the first quarter and first few of the second, the bench chipped away at Toronto's lead and turned a 12-point deficit into a 27-26 lead on a 15-2 run. The 3-point shot was the Wolves' friend. Anthony Tolliver buried a pair, so did Derrick Rose and Jimmy Butler.
But then Kyle Lowry and Danny Green checked back in for the Raptors and within moments they retook the game. The Wolves' lead quickly vanished as Leonard continued his All-Star caliber play. He finished the half with 18 points on 8 of 12 shooting. Green was plus-20 and Lowry was plus-22 when each was on the floor, meaning the Raptors outscored the Wolves by that many points when each player was on the floor.
Okogie redeemed himself in the third quarter when he hit a pair of 3-pointers and caused Scotiabank Arena to gasp with a high-flying put-back dunk of a Butler miss in the third quarter. In the process, he recorded his first career double-double before the quarter was over.
But the Wolves could never erase the Raptors lead and after three quarters, Toronto was ahead 83-74 despite the Wolves hitting 11 of 22 3-pointers through 36 minutes. The Raptors continued to pour it on in the fourth quarter thanks to Leonard, Lowry, who had 10 assists, and Serge Ibaka, who had 15.
