If you looked at the box score, Monday night’s loss to the Pelicans looked like a typical early-season performance for the Timberwolves. But don’t tell that to Anthony Edwards.
The Timberwolves’ rising star had a spirited postgame press conference after the loss, going full alpha when discussing his team’s performance.
“Wake up call for sure,” Edwards said about the loss. “Lock in. Lock the f*** in. Everybody coming in here thinking it’s sweet playing the Pelicans. [They] whooped our ass. Now our back’s on the wall again. [We’ve] got to wake up.”
Edwards was held to two points in the first half of Monday’s game but woke up to drop 21 points in the final 8:33 of the third quarter. Although he had 28 points for the game, the Timberwolves couldn’t erase a 21-point New Orleans lead and a big reason was the lack of opportunities for Minnesota’s role players.
Between Edwards, Karl-Anthony Towns and D’Angelo Russell, the trio combined for 61 of the 90 shots and 69 of the 98 points Minnesota put up on Monday night. While Towns finished with a game-high 32 points, Edwards and Patrick Beverley (13 points) were the only players that finished in double figures.
“We think [we ‘re] the only ones on the team,” Edwards explained. “[We’ve] got to be willing to pass the ball. There’s no “I” in team. We can’t beat five people with three people. We beat five people with five people.”
“That’s how basketball works,” Wolves wing Josh Okogie via Bluewire Pod’s Dane Moore. “There’s five people on the court for a reason. I think if we share the ball…I think we’re very hard to beat. But if we play stagnant, we’re very easy to guard.”
Edwards’s comments show a player that is coming into his own despite turning 20 in August. It would have been easy for Edwards to dismiss the poor effort and turn his attention to the matchup with the world champion Milwaukee Bucks on Wednesday night but Edwards has higher aspirations for a team that has historically resided at the bottom of the NBA standings.
