Timberwolves' Anthony Edwards Shines in Playoff Victory Against Suns: Game 1 Recap

 

Anthony Edwards made the decision to take the temperature of his shooting streak while the target center was throbbing. The Minnesota Timberwolves' explosive young star, full of confidence, had already made a number of jump shots and was getting more excited with each one. Then, in the crucial third quarter of the match, Edwards drove left flank and fired with just 48 seconds left.

Edwards danced through the net to finally meet Kevin Durant's spread of wingspan, causing the fans to yell with excitement. With the Timberwolves leading by sixteen points, the 22-year-old Edwards bowed his head, hammered his chest with one hand, and yelled at the 35-year-old Durant, who grinned and shook his head. The crowd was vibrating with excitement, but something else was happening—perhaps the beginning of something new.

"After the Timberwolves defeated the Suns 120-95 in Game 1, Edwards said, "I think everyone here knows he's my all-time favorite player, so this was probably one of the best feelings I've had in my entire life."

The Timberwolves' 25-point victory is their second-largest in post-season history, after a 28-point triumph against the Lakers on April 22, 2003, according to ESPN Stats & Information Research. Edwards was also a source of inspiration. The former first-round selection added nine rebounds, six assists, and one more block to his already impressive resume.

Their record of five straight postseason games with 25 points or more dates back to the previous season, making it the longest streak in team history. The record for the most playoff games with 30 or more points in a single game was broken by Edwards' sixth one, which beat the record held by Kevin Garnett of the Timberwolves.

The greatest effect, though, was made by Edwards in the third quarter, when he tied Sam Cassell for the most points in a quarter in Timberwolves playoff history with 18 points and more field goals (8) than the Suns (6).

The Timberwolves led by 20 points at the end of the quarter, marking the second time in team history that they had this kind of advantage going into the fourth quarter of a postseason game. It turned out that the fourth quarter was mainly a waste of time.

The Timberwolves will play Game 2 of the series on Tuesday in an attempt to advance past the first round for the first time since 2004. The 14-time All-Star Durant led the Suns with 31 points in his first full season with the team. His evaluation of his collaboration with Edwards was unambiguous: "He brought it forward, he did some tough work."

Edwards, meanwhile, was also full of compliments for Durant. "Did you see him in the third quarter?" On Durant, Edwards made a comment. "I believed that at the start of the third quarter, we needed to reach 15, 18. And he made four or five consecutive buckets like it was nothing, if my memory serves me well. And I did get into his fandom at one time. I thought, "Oh my god, he's really good." Nothing could be done by us. Karl-Anthony Towns was doing a fantastic job on defense. Rudy [Gobert] was doing a fantastic job on defense.

 

"I'm looking at the stat sheet, and he's 11 out of 17 [from the field]," Edwards stated. "He scored 31 points despite missing six shots. He's the best player to ever do it, man, in my opinion. He's the best, so congrats to him."

In fact, Durant made just five shots in the second half of the game after making four jumpers to begin the third quarter. He finished with 18 points on 16 shots, but was stopped by Timberwolves defensive specialist Jaden McDaniels, who only scored 1 point from 7 field goals. Beal made 10 shots for 15 points.

"I think this is their best game so far," Beal remarked. Please remember that this is a game.

Minnesota was put in a terrible predicament after this victory, as they lost all three of their regular-season games vs the Suns by double digits.

The Timberwolves' most recent defeat occurred on Sunday, when they lost 125-106, almost exactly by the stated score. According to Edwards, "They came here, and at the end of the regular season, they were screaming and laughing on our home court."Bradley, a Suns guard Beal was correct when he told our coach that we weren't working hard enough. [Chic, head coach of the Timberwolves] Finch took offense at that. "Hey, you got other guys on the other team telling me you guys don't work hard enough for me," he said when he arrived the following day. And he was 100 percent correct.

"All we were doing was allowing them to pursue their interests. They make an amazing team. I mean, those three guys are amazing gamers. Beating these people is going to be difficult."

Edwards was outstanding for the Timberwolves, but Towns (19 points, 7 rebounds), Gobert (14 points, 16 rebounds), and an excellent effort from the bench by Nikell Alexander-Walker (18 points) and Naz Reid (12 points) all helped the club win.

The Timberwolves' commanding leads in rebounds (52 to 28), paint points (52 to 34), and second-chance points (20 to 6) were the most noteworthy developments.

Gobert stated, "Our focus and our immediacy were clearly at a high level throughout the game." "I thought it was good that we followed the game plan for the entire forty-eight minutes. We made an effort to stick to our routine and not start the first three games as explosively as we did."