The Minnesota Timberwolves crushed the Golden State Warriors 107-90 at Chase Center on Friday night in another dominant defensive display. In his postgame press conference, Anthony Edwards was asked about the Timberwolves’ defense and hilariously praised Julius Randle, who was sat next to him, for finally playing defense.
“Everyone is guarding at a high level but Jaden (McDaniels) and Rudy is being the anchors that we need them to be. I think that’s the main thing.” Edwards said .”Naz (Reid) and Julius is f***ing playing defense. I’ve never seen them play defense before. That’s f***ing incredible, and he’s right here, put the camera on him. He be guarding his a** off.”
Anthony Edwards:
“Naz and Julius is f****** playing defense. You know, I've never see [Julius] play defense before. That's f****** incredible, and he's right here, put the camera on him. He be guarding his a** off.”
(via @DaneMooreNBA)pic.twitter.com/n5hHUXJKMl
— Legion Hoops (@LegionHoops) December 7, 2024
Randle, who had 16 points, nine rebounds, four assists, and one steal against the Warriors, has been accused of giving little to no effort on defense plenty of times over the years. The three-time All-Star came under fire for it earlier this season too.
In a game against the Chicago Bulls on Nov. 7, Timberwolves assistant coach Pablo Prigioni got mad at Randle over his lack of effort on defense. Prigioni had every right to be upset with the big man and to the latter’s credit, he has started to put in more effort now.
While Randle’s play isn’t the biggest reason for the Timberwolves’ recent defensive dominance, he has played his part in it. Following the win against the Warriors, they have allowed 92 points or fewer in four straight games.
The Timberwolves are now playing the kind of suffocating defense they did last season when they were the best defensive team in the NBA. That defensive excellence propelled them to a 56-26 record in 2023-24 and if they can keep this up, they’ll be able to turn things around after a slow start to 2024-25.
The Timberwolves had dropped to 8-10 this season following a loss to the Sacramento Kings on Nov. 27. They seemed to be spiraling downward at that point and Edwards was quite upset. After that loss to the Kings, Edwards called the Timberwolves “soft as hell” and a “bunch of little kids.”
“We’ve been trying to figure this out for the whole year man. We thought defense was our identity and it’s not looking like it at all. Identity, me and Mike [Conley] were talking about this – I think it’s we soft as hell as a team, internally.”
“Not to the other team, but internally, we soft. We can’t talk to each other. Just a bunch of little kids. Just like playing with a bunch of little kids who can’t talk to each other. We gotta figure it out man, because we can’t go down this road.”
Edwards also stated the Timberwolves were frontrunners as he put the team on blast. All that tongue-lashing appears to have worked, as the team has won four in a row since to improve to 12-10.
In this latest win over the Warriors, Edwards had 30 points, four rebounds, nine assists, one steal, and two blocks. It was easily the two-time All-Star’s best game in this win streak and the Timberwolves would be hoping for more of the same moving forward. They take on the Warriors at Chase Center again on Sunday at 8:30 PM ET and would be confident they can get another win.
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