As one of four teams remaining in this NBA postseason, the Minnesota Timberwolves are within reach of the Larry O’Brien trophy. But after a blowout loss in Game 1, young star Anthony Edwards is feeling the heat. According to Andscape’s Marc Spears, the Timberwolves star stayed up until the early hours of the morning to watch film of the Game 1 loss alongside an assistant coach.
“Anthony Edwards typically has played a little better in his second game than he has in each of their previous two series against the Lakers and Warriors,” said Spears. “People close to him say they expect him to do that again tonight. After they lost in Game 1, he and an assistant coach watched game film at a nearby hotel until 3 am. So he’s definitely more mentally prepared for this next game.”
Edwards, 23, was drafted first overall by the Timberwolves in 2020. After a standout season at Georgia, Edwards took his talents to the NBA, where he blossomed into a star right away. In just four years in the league, Edwards already has a stacked resume as a 3x All-Star, All-NBA player, and 1x Olympic gold medalist.
To date, Anthony has yet to reach the NBA Finals but this current playoff run is perhaps the best chance he’s ever had of getting there. As the sixth seed in the playoffs, the Timberwolves came in as the underdogs to win the West but now they are just four wins away after beating the Lakers and Warriors in the first two rounds.
With averages of 27.6 points, 5.7 rebounds, and 4.5 assists per game in the regular season, we knew Edwards was going to take his game up a notch in the playoffs but it still wasn’t enough to avoid defeat in Game 1.
In perhaps their worst game of the entire playoffs so far, the Timberwolves lost by 26 points on the road with a final score of 114-88. Edwards, who has been a hero throughout the playoffs, finished with just 18 points and nine rebounds on 38.5% shooting and four turnovers. Much to his surprise, he only took nine shots in the game.
Frankly, it was an unacceptable performance for Edwards, and he’ll need to be better for the Timberwolves to have a chance in the series. After Game 1, it’s clear that the size, length, and speed of the Thunder is going to be a problem for Minnesota and we already saw how much it disrupted Edwards’ rhythm.
The good news for the Timberwolves is that Edwards’ competitive nature kept him up all night looking for solutions. With his season on the line, Edwards knows that his performance in Game 2 will make or break their season and he wants to ensure that he gets the results he wants this time.
Tonight, the odds are against OKC holding Edwards to under 20 points but it’ll likely take more than that for Ant to secure the win. Against the top team in the West, Edwards will need to go nuclear to pull off the upset and keep his season alive. Fortunately, he’ll also have some help in the form of Rudy Gobert and Julius Randle. Only time will tell if it’s enough to make a difference in the outcome of the series.
