MINNEAPOLIS -- Kristaps Porzingis and Karl-Anthony Towns are building a tantalizing rivalry for the NBAs new age.Carmelo Anthony let the kids have their fun until it was time to go home.Porzingis had 29 points and eight rebounds and Towns had 47 points and 18 boards, but Anthony hit the winning jumper with 2.3 seconds left, lifting the New York Knicks to a 106-104 win over the Minnesota Timberwolves on Wednesday night.I mean the skys the limit for those two guys in this league, said Antony, who had just 12 points on 4-for-15 shooting before splashing the winner over Andrew Wiggins outstretched hand. With Towns, the way hes playing, Kristaps getting better and better each day, theyll be around for a long time and, you know, theyll be the face of this league in a couple years.The 21-year-old Towns is the third-youngest player in the last three decades to have at least 45 points and 15 rebounds in a game.The Wolves used a 20-3 run to tie it at 102 with under a minute to play, but Porzingis threw Gorgui Dieng aside for a putback slam and Anthony tipped the inbounds pass on Minnesotas final possession to thwart the comeback.I think it was a good show for everybody, Porzingis said. But the most important is we got the win.Brandon Jennings scored 12 points off the bench and Porzingis had a big block against his friend and draft classmate Towns to help the Knicks weather the loss of Joakim Noah, who sat out with a sprained left ankle. New York made 13 3-pointers to Minnesotas four.After the Timberwolves lost to Utah on Monday, a despondent Towns vowed to do more to help his team win. He came out a man on fire, scoring 22 points on 8-for-8 shooting and grabbing seven rebounds in the first quarter.Im so proud of all of my teammates, said Towns, whose Wolves fell to 5-13. The fight that we have every time were down to comeback and find a way to put ourselves back in a game is the reason why I think so many find the potential in us to be great.TIP-INSKnicks: SG Courtney Lee only played eight minutes because of a sprained left ankle. ... Coach Jeff Hornacek said F Lance Thomas, who has not played yet because of a sore left ankle, had a good workout during shootaround and will practice on Friday in the hopes of playing in the next game or two.Timberwolves: Wiggins had 19 points, seven rebounds and four assists. ... Towns 22 points in the first quarter were two off of Chauncey Billups franchise record of 24. ... G/F Brandon Rush was inactive with a sore big toe that has bothered him for much of the season.SLAM SWATTEDThe two young stars rarely guarded each other, but Towns did go at Porzingis late in the second quarter, rising up to try to dunk on him only to have the Latvian emphatically stuff him for Towns first missed shot in 11 attempts.He tried, Porzingis said. He was being super aggressive. He was driving to the basket, shooting from the outside, playing in the post. He was doing everything. He was playing an overall game, and it was really hard to stop him.FOND MEMORIESThe Bulls made the playoffs all five seasons with coach Tom Thibodeau leading Derrick Rose and Noah. Rose and Noah were two players Thibodeau, now with Minnesota, deeply respected for their competitive drive and determination.You dont realize what you have with him until hes not around, Noah said. He used to tell me that when I played for him because we used to butt heads all the time. Hes definitely one of the tops in the business.FAMILIAR FACESTwo Knicks assistants have Minnesota ties, with Kurt Rambis a former head coach and Jerry Sichting spending a total of 13 years in two separate stints as an assistant.Its still special, Sichting said. I still know a lot of people in the organization and around town. I dont miss the winters around here, but I always enjoy coming back.UP NEXTThe two teams meet again in two days, this time in Manhattan on Friday night for a game in which Thibodeau will return to the arena he called home for seven seasons as a Knicks assistant. Cheap Air Max Plus Mens . LOUIS -- St. Air Max Plus Cheap . In the response filed Wednesday to the complaint by 30-year-old Alexander Bradley, attorneys say the former University of Florida player is invoking his Fifth Amendment right that protects people from incriminating themselves. http://www.cheapairmaxplus.net/ . Capitals head coach Adam Oates said Ovechkin was injured in the first period against the Vancouver Canucks on Monday and clarified it was not a head injury. Cheap Air Max Plus . After a first half in which he thought "the lid was on the basket," the Toronto Raptors coach watched his squad mount a second half surge to defeat the Cleveland Cavaliers 98-91. Cheap Air Max Plus Womens . By having more great seasons. Manning was the only unanimous choice for the 2013 Associated Press NFL All-Pro team Friday. Talk me down, Im on the boxing ledge.I love boxing as much as anyone and devoted most of my professional career to it, but it is hard to be a boxing fan right now. Too many fights we all want to see do not get made (Canelo Alvarez-Gennady Golovkin is just one).Even when they sometimes do get put together, its often torturous getting there (Floyd Mayweather-Manny Pacquiao).Even when a great match is made fairly easily with no drama, which happens from time to time, we get the bad news of an injury forcing it to be canceled (Orlando Salido-Takashi Miura).The whole Canelo-GGG thing is a farce with Golden Boy Promotions wanting to delay the biggest fight in boxing until this time next year because Alvarez somehow needs a year-plus and three fights (at least) to become a real 160-pounder. For goodness sake, he was the lineal middleweight champion of the world even though he insisted on fighting at 155 pounds. What a joke.Yes, weight classes exist for a reason, and there is a difference when fighters put on a lot of weight, but come on. If youre an elite fighter, which Alvarez is, those pounds dont make much of a difference. To me, the jump from junior middleweight to middleweight has always appeared to be one of the easiest weight class changes.Did the great Felix Trinidad need multiple fights to put on five stinkin pounds? No. Tito went from unifying junior middleweight titles in his epic knockout win of Fernando Vargas right into a tournament at middleweight and won a title in his first fight in the division by stopping William Joppy in devastating fashion.Did Sergio Martinez need years to go from junior middleweight, where he held a belt, to middleweight? No. His first fight at middleweight was a classic with Paul Williams. Yes, Martinez lost that fight, which could have gone either way, but it did not in any way hurt his career. He won the title from Kelly Pavlik in his next fight. And that loss to Williams? He avenged it with one of the sickest knockouts I have ever been ringside for.So, even as Alvarez runs for cover, Golovkin cant get the next biggest in the division made while waiting for him. GGG wants to face his mandatory challenger (and junior varisty titleholder) Daniel Jacobs, in the next-best fight in the division.?It should be an easy fight to make right? After all, the WBA has ordered the fight and upheld the usual 75-25 split and the fight was penciled in for Dec. 10 on HBO. The Golovkin side was even willing to give Jacobs more than 25 percent, but not the 40 percent he petitioned the WBA for in a purse bid split. A 67-33 split sounds right, and its not like there are untold riches here because it is not a pay-per-view fight. That means there is a cap on the revenue the fight can generate between the HBO fee, the gate, sponsors and a few territories for international television that HBO wouldnt own. I talked to an expert on this stuff and we estimated there is about $5 million to $6 million in the fight total before expenses.Yet Jacobs (meaning his adviser, Al Haymon) has dragged this nonsense out for so long that they said they couldnt get it done in time for Dec. 10 and will look to early 2017. Why in the world would a normal fight (and this is no superfight) need so long for a deal to be made? The process began in late September yet they cant do it until January (at the earliest)? That is not normal, especially since the WBA should have simply held the purse bid and let the chips fall where they may.The cratering of GGG-Jacobs leads me to another issue here -- it cost Golovkin, who prides himself on activity, a chance at a third fight this year. Jacobs, meanwhile, has fought just once in 2016, which is a disgrace for a healthy, vibrant fighter with options.That is one of boxings biggest problems: lack of activity for top guys. How can anyone expect to reach any level of serious stardom when the public and press see you fight once or twice a year? Guys fight and then go into hiding for 10 months. Its insane. The worst offender is Haymon and his Premier Boxing Champions stable. There are an absurd number of PBC-affiliated titleeholders, contenders and name fighters with a shocking lack of activity.dddddddddddd Jacobs is far from the only guy with one fight this year.How about Keith Thurman, Shawn Porter, Adonis Stevenson, Andre Berto, Jermell Charlo, Erislandy Lara, Vanes Martirosyan, James DeGale, Badou Jack, Anthony Dirrell, Andre Dirrell, Austin Trout, Adrien Broner, Rances Barthelemy, Gary Russell Jr., John Molina Jr., Jose Pedraza, Edner Cherry and Lee Selby? Peter Quillin and Lamont Peterson have not fought at all this year. This list is by no means complete, either.Thurman is one of the best young fighters in boxing. He holds a welterweight world title, he is undefeated, packs a big punch, has a solid fan base at home in the Tampa area and is a great interview. But he has fought once in a terrific fight against Porter. One fight a year for a guy of his caliber is unforgivable.Then there is a guy like Danny Garcia, who was a bona fide junior welterweight champion with a strong resume, exciting style and tons of options. And then he stopped facing anyone who mattered for three years other than his debatable win against Peterson in 2015. His 2016 will have been a waste -- a fight in January against faded former titleholder Robert Guerrero to win a vacant welterweight belt and a meaningless, abomination of a mismatch with Samuel Vargas next month.Supposedly, if Garcia wins, it means we will get Thurman-Garcia in March. But did Garcia really have to scrape the bottom of the barrel for the Nov. 12 fight? Its embarrassing.And dont get me started on middleweight titlist Billy Joe Saunders, a non-PBC fighter who has done nothing for the past year but hold his title hostage by turning down fights.Im also tired of fighters arguing over weight. True catchweight fights are fine when there is a considerable weight difference and it makes sense. Too many fighters are demanding silly catchweights over a couple of pounds. All fighters should have the mentality of welterweight Kell Brook, who didnt argue about jumping two weight classes when offered a shot at Golovkin.Weight issues cost us what I think would have been a popular fight this fall between two future Hall of Fame stars -- Miguel Cotto and Juan Manuel Marquez -- because they were quarreling over a couple of pounds. Its a damn shame. It also means Cotto wont fight at all this year and Marquez not in the past two. (Although he at least has a legitimate reason of having been injured.)One reason for the lack of fighter activity falls at the feet of the networks. Showtime has not had a Showtime Championship Boxing card since July. Its next one isnt until December. A quarter of the year without its flagship series?After launching the PBC in 2015, Haymon spent millions of investor money on a lot of meaningless bells and whistles (Hans Zimmer music anyone?) and even more pathetic mismatches. Now, to zero surprise, there are inevitable cutbacks that dramatically reduced the number of cards in the second half of this year. From mid-September to the end of the year there will only be two PBC cards, both on Spike.And I havent forgotten about you, HBO, the self-titled heart and soul of boxing. Not this year, my friends.From mid-June until late November, HBO will have had only three network cards (not including pay-per-view replays): Sergey Kovalev-Isaac Chilemba (on several hours tape delay), Andre Ward-Alexander Brand (one of the worst matchups on paper and fights in the ring in network history) and the fine split-site show featuring Golovkin-Brook and Roman Gonzalez-Carlos Cuadras. The next network fight is not until Nov. 26 (although its a good one, Vasyl Lomachenko-Nicholas Walters).Other than the bright light of the Francisco Vargas-Salido fight of the year contender in June, it has been a hideous year for HBO boxing so far, having given us the likes of Dmitry Mikhaylenko-Karim Mayfield and Felix Verdejo-William Silva.Hopefully, 2017 will be better. It cant get much worse. Now get off my lawn. ' ' '