Welcome to the scene Anthony Edwards! Most of the avid NBA fans already knew what Ant Man was all about, but the more casual viewers who may not have watched him all year (The T-Wolves don’t get too much national TV time) got a glimpse of what this kid can do. Twitter exploded with comparisons of MJ after he drove the lane, leaped toward the rim, took the contact, and seemingly hung in the air before releasing his shot. Ant is a bucket, he knows it, Minnesota knows it, and now the rest of the NBA fans know it. He stole the spotlight from Karl Anthony-Towns, who has a reputation of not showing up in games like this, see Jimmy Butler’s comments from their last post-season appearance if you aren’t familiar.
It looked to me as if KAT simply didn’t want to be there. Maybe he did at the jump, but he quickly found himself 0/5 from the field with one rebound and two fouls… entering the second quarter. It got worse from there finishing the first half with four fouls, 0/7 shooting, and still just one rebound. Some of that falls on Chris Finch for leaving him in after picking up two quick fouls, and definitely after he picked up his third foul. Four fouls in the first half is inexcusable for any player, especially your all-star. KAT is not all to blame for that, but even coming into the second half, he was playing irresponsibly. When he picked up his fifth foul, he blatantly lowered his shoulder bowling Nicolas Batum over, which he got away with and instantly went into Marcus Morris basically forcing the referee to make the call. When you have four fouls in the third quarter of a game, you can’t just force your way through the defense. KAT lost his head. His final foul in the game wasn’t any prettier, he aggressively went for a rebound in a cluster of players. Again, when you are in foul trouble, you just see yourself out of that situation, you are more valuable to your team when you’re on the floor than sitting on the bench, let your teammate fight for that rebound, step back and wait for a possible tip out, or position yourself to defend if the rebound goes the other way. His decision making left me scratching my head, it almost came across as intentional. This isn’t a rookie out there getting caught in the moment of a post-season game. KAT is seven years into his career, not a whole lot of playoff experience, but definitely has enough games under his belt that he should know better.
My guess is KAT cracked under the pressure, he wasn’t performing well and flat out lost his head. Luckily his team was able to take care of business and maybe this will be forgotten as they head into a first round playoff matchup against the Grizzlies which should be a lot of fun to watch. Two young teams battling it out. Ant and Ja providing highlight-reel drives, more Pat Beverly fun, hopefully a better showing from KAT. Towns should be sending a personal thank you letter to the glue girl and buying his guy Anthony Edwards a nice gift because I think when we look back at this game, we will remember the time Ant Man became a hero after a lady tried gluing herself to the court, and KAT’s performance will be an afterthought.
Let me know your thoughts about KAT’s performance and what you think about their upcoming matchup with Ja and the Grizzlies, you can find me on Twitter @GreNBA_ As always, thanks for reading, This is All Net!
Jacob Grenemeier
April 13th, 2022
Chicago Hoop Heads 
