Speaking to the media ahead of Sunday’s critical showdown, Anthony Edwards portrayed confidence in his team’s chance to come out on top. According to Edwards, there is a genuine belief in the locker room that the Timberwolves are just better than the competition, including the Denver Nuggets.
“I think we’re confident just because we’re a great team,” Edwards said, via ESPN. “We’re going against another great team and we feel like we’re the better team. That’s all the confidence that we need. The two previous games [that the Wolves won in Denver] don’t mean anything. They beat our *ss on our home court, so that don’t mean anything. Right now it’s about who is going to play better tomorrow.”
This series has been a strange one, to say the least. The Nuggets came into the matchup favored to win against a younger and inexperienced Timberwolves squad and they looked good coming off their first-round gentleman’s sweep of the Lakers.
What they didn’t expect was to be humiliated on their home court, losing the first two games of the series including a blowout in a pivotal Game 2. The Nuggets looked completely exposed and shut down early on, and yet somehow they managed to respond.
In Games 3, 4, and 5, the Nuggets took complete control and they wrestled the advantage back in their favor thanks to some masterful games from Nikola Jokic that not even Edwards could help but recognize.
With their backs against the wall, the Timberwolves found the spark that carried them early in the series and won the game by a ridiculous margin to force a Game 7. At this point, with the series swinging so wildly one way and the other, it’s anyone’s guess who will win on Sunday but that will be the final chapter of his saga, which may prove to be one of the more interesting series of the playoffs.
Anthony Edwards Vs. Nikola Jokic
As the Wolves took the win in Game 6, Nikola Jokic was caught string on the sidelines watching every second as the cock struck zero in a blowout loss. While the defeat was not entirely on his shoulders, the stifling Timberwolves defense has bothered him all series long and now he must prepare to face the worst of it in a do-or-die scenario for a trip to the West Finals
This season, after averaging 26.4 points, 12.4 rebounds, and 9.0 assists per game on 58.3% shooting, Jokic won his third MVP and marked his place in history as one of the all-time greats. Between those trophies and his championship win last year, Jokic has nothing left to prove in the NBA… but he and the Nuggets are fighting just the same and Anthony Edwards has them on the ropes.
This season, and this series in particular, is a chance for Edwards to finally make a statement that he’s arrived and he’s ready to take his place as the new king of the NBA. So far, Ant has embraced the challenge and he seems determined to make his highest ambitions a reality but only with a win on Sunday can the Wolves hope to break the cycle of history and finally earn the respect of their peers.
Fortunately, Edwards knows what must be done and he seems more ready than anyone to make a statement and start a culture of winning for the Timberwolves franchise.
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