NEW YORK _ Basketball is a team sport, but sometime the game boils down to 1-on-1.
For most of Wednesday night at Barclays Center, the game became a duel between Karl-Anthony Towns and Nets guard Kyrie Irving. They traded baskets late, Towns flexed his muscles all over the floor while Irving pulled off a series of frenzy-inducing moves and jumpers.
But for the final possession of the night, Irving took the final shot while Towns wasn't even on the floor.
It ended up OK for the Wolves, who came away with a 127-126 victory in overtime after Irving missed at the buzzer.
In the extra period, the fast-paced Wolves slowed it down and played a possession game, and got huge buckets from Andrew Wiggins to take a 127-124 lead with 52.8 seconds to play. But after a Towns miss from 3, the Nets had a chance to take the lead with 14.5 seconds remaining, but Irving missed as coach Ryan Saunders subbed in Noah Vonleh for Towns on defense.
Irving finished with 50 points while Towns stuffed the stat sheet with 36 points and 14 rebounds.
Irving scored nine consecutive points down the stretch of the fourth quarter, but Towns answered with a 3 to tie the game 115-115 with 1:06 remaining. Following a pair of missed free throws from Jarrett Allen and a missed put-back from Taurean Prince, the Wolves had a chance to win with 2.6 seconds remaining in regulation but a Wiggins jumper missed at the buzzer.
Overall, it was a night that showed some promise for the Wolves but also where they need to improve.
The first moments of the Timberwolves season went against everything the team preached in the offseason. Their first shot of the season came via a long two just inside the 3-point line _ among the worst shots you can take from an analytical perspective. They followed that possession with a Wiggins midrange jumper, though he was fouled, and Towns had another long 2.
But after that, the Wolves remembered their schooling from the front office and coach Ryan Saunders, taking a healthy dosage of 3s and driving more to the basket.
The Wolves grabbed a hold of the lead late in the first quarter and didn't relinquish it the rest of the half. That was thanks in large part to the second unit. With the Wolves playing at a heightened pace, coach Ryan Saunders opted for the hockey-style en masse substitution patterns early, meaning the first and second units played together most of the time. That second unit of Jarrett Culver, Jake Layman, Shabazz Napier, Noah Vonleh and Josh Okogie hit the floor with the Wolves ahead 21-19 with 3:52 remaining in the first quarter and exited with a 48-33 lead with 6:42 to play in the second.
Eventually Irving returned to the floor and the Nets offense got re-ignited. He ended up with 25 points on 9 of 15 shooting for the half, but Towns was also dominant for the Wolves, cleaning up on the glass and he was drilling 3s (4 of 4 in the first half), creating a dilemma for Brooklyn on how to defend him. A Spencer Dinwiddie 3 at the buzzer gave the Nets some life cut the Wolves' lead to 12 headed into the third quarter.
The Nets capitalized on that and completed their comeback in relatively short order in the third quarter.
A Joe Harris transition 3 gave Brooklyn a 71-70 lead just 3:21 into the third, the Nets' first lead since 10-8. Irving's supporting cast found its legs, with Prince going 6 for 7 for 15 points and Dinwiddie adding another seven in the quarter. Brooklyn carried a 93-88 lead into the back-and-forth fourth, with Irving and Towns just getting warmed up.
