SAN FRANCISCO — A 3-pointer by Anthony Edwards prompted a Warriors timeout with 6:44 left in the game. The visiting Wolves, down by as much as 20 in the second half, were within 10. The Warriors stopped the action to get Stephen Curry, their closer back in the game.
Edwards walked over to the scorer’s table as the teams set to resume play. He was about to wipe his face with the white Gatorade branded towel in his hands. But first, he had a message for Curry.
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“Hey Steph,” the camera’s caught Edwards saying, “I’m ‘bout to go for 50.”
Edwards then dried off his face, swiped his black and white adidas across the sticky mat for better grip and set off trying to make his proclamation true. The knee-jerk reaction, which is not entirely wrong, is to point to the scoreboard and declare Edwards was focused on the wrong thing. But something else was playing out here, something perhaps relevant to the Timberwolves’ future. The context was clear in Curry’s reaction.
Here was a second-year player who was having a career night but hasn’t done anything in the NBA. Yet, here was Edwards telling a three-time champion and two-time MVP, who is in the running for a third trophy, that he was coming. Only six players in the Steve Kerr era have scored at least 45 on the Warriors. Damian Lillard twice, LeBron James, Anthony Davis, James Harden, Russell Westbrook and Lou Williams. Edwards was bold enough, confident enough, to put a number on it, undoubtedly aware Curry just dropped 50 the previous game.
Curry’s response? He contorted his mouth into a minor frown and nodded his head. As if he was weighing the possibility for a blink and landed on “Ok. Possible.”
Ant-Man told Steph: “Imma go for fifty” 😂😂😂
pic.twitter.com/a3ssQdgfsr— TheWarriorsTalk (@TheWarriorsTalk) November 11, 2021
And 45 seconds later, he hit his seventh 3-pointer, cutting the deficit to 10. Edwards finished with 48 points, just shy of his proclamation but impressive nonetheless. The Wolves got as close as five before the Warriors stepped on the gas and closed them out, but they walked out of Chase Center knowing they had been in a fight.
“He was fantastic,” Kerr said. “He’s just so explosive athletically and obviously he made the seven 3s. He came into the game shooting 30 percent but we knew he was very capable shooting the 3 and he got it going. He got to the line, got anywhere he wanted. He’s an incredible talent and he’s getting better.”
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The 48 points were a new career-high for Edwards, but he earned more than that on Wednesday night. He left the Chase Center floor with even more respect after giving a glimpse of what his game could look like when he puts it all together. And it was objectively spectacular. He left the impression that he is a problem that will have to be dealt with, that he is a worthy foe.
The No. 1 overall pick in 2020, who could’ve landed with the Warriors had things broken differently, showed exactly why the Wolves did well to choose him — even over James Wiseman and LaMelo Ball. The Wolves’ poor start has not reflected well on former President of Basketball Operations Gersson Rosas’ roster building. But in making what was a difficult choice at the time, Rosas helped deliver a sheer force to Minnesota.
“He’s obviously skilled. He’s super talented,” Curry said. “I know they’re trying to find their way in terms of how they can mesh all that talent over there together. But you like to see young guys like that take steps in the right direction every year. Knowing it’s just his second year but that was impressive for sure.”
The eruption didn’t win a game for the Timberwolves, who have now lost six in a row and are fighting to not give in to the same demons that have consumed so many of their seasons over the last 15-plus years. But it did give a different edge to a team that has been a laughing stock for so long.
No one has taken the Wolves seriously since Kevin Garnett willed them to eight straight playoff appearances, the last one coming in 2004. Sure, there was that one playoff run with Jimmy Butler, but anyone paying attention knew that was never going to last. They have been easily dismissed, an unserious franchise destined for an annual trip to the lottery, or in the case of last year, to sit it out thanks to an ill-fated deal.
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The Warriors may have been at the front of that line of doubters. They have never had to worry much about Minnesota. Sure, they have lost a game or two to them over the years, but the Timberwolves were never a threat to them.
From the moment they pulled off the trade that sent D’Angelo Russell to Minnesota for Andrew Wiggins and a lightly protected first-round pick, there was a sense inside the organization that they had swindled the Wolves. The way the Warriors carried themselves when the Wolves would come to town really got under the skin of Minnesota’s front office, but it is hard to deny it right now. Wiggins hasn’t been a star, but he has played well in his role, given Golden State what it has needed, and now the Warriors also have the No. 7 pick, Jonathan Kuminga, waiting in the wings, too, thanks to former president Gersson Rosas’ thirst for Russell.
It has been easy for teams to look down on the Wolves because they so rarely put up a fight. Russell has not made the impact the Wolves had hoped. Karl-Anthony Towns is supremely talented, but a finesse player who is not making opponents feel him this season.
For as much as Edwards still has to learn, and boy does he have a long way to go, he is impossible to ignore on the court. His 48 against the Warriors was the third time in his young career that he has topped 40 in a game. LeBron James, Kevin Durant and Luka Doncic are the only other players to drop 40 at least three times before they turned 21.
“He’s a tough kid. He’s a tough guard,” Wiggins said. “He can really shoot the ball. He’s fast. He’s strong. He’s got the whole basketball package.”
There are nights when he still looks like a kid trying to find his way. He went 6 for 19 and 0 for 6 from 3 in a loss to Denver, 7 for 22 and 3 for 12 from deep in a loss to the Clippers, too often settling for jumpers instead of attacking with all that muscle and fire.
“They’re young players and they’re going to have periods where they don’t figure it out right away, and as a team we’re right there now, too,” Wolves coach Chris Finch said. “We’re kind of emblematic of that.”
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But when Ant Man is rolling like he was against the Warriors, the league’s No. 1-ranked defense, on Wednesday night, there just isn’t much anyone can do to stop him.
Kevon Looney’s magic trick as a big man is his ability to switch out onto guards and hold his own. It makes him valuable to the Warriors, especially in the postseason. He’s not exceptionally athletic, or even an aggressive ball-hawking big. But he’s patient and smart. He doesn’t bite on head fakes, isn’t duped by crossovers and doesn’t rattle against fancy dribbling. He keeps his head about him, and his feet. He takes smart angles and absorbs contact on drives. Guards who don’t blow by Looney end up feeling him while trying to get off a floater or finish through his contact. And he’s done this surprising well against great guards — James Harden, Chris Paul, Damian Lillard, Jrue Holiday — on big stages.
That’s why it was so jarring when he could do nothing with Edwards’ drives.
“When he’s coming downhill,” Looney said, “he’s extremely athletic and sending a lot of problems for us. As bigs sometimes, you’ll just be in a drop and try to meet guys at the rim. But a guy like that, he’s tough to meet at the rim. He’s really crafty. … Usually, guys at that position, I can usually take their bump and make him go where I want to. But he was strong enough to kind of knock me off my spot. That was something I had to get used to.”
Toughness and Timberwolves have rarely been in the same sentence. Edwards likes to shoot the 3 to keep defenses honest, but when he gets a head of steam, drops his shoulder and gets into a defender’s chest, good luck.
Finch has harped on Edwards to not let defenses off the hook, to keep going to the basket. There are nights when he falls in love with the jumper a little too much, but Wednesday night was the ideal blend of drives and jumpers. He was 16 for 27 from the field, including 7 for 13 from 3. But maybe as importantly, on a night when Towns and Russell did not shoot a single free throw, Edwards plowed his way to 12 attempts.
“It was absolutely perfect,” Finch said. “Everything starts with his aggressiveness getting to the basket. He did that early and often, and then he found a rhythm from outside, and that’s how it’s going to be.”
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The Warriors came out with the W, but Edwards made them feel him on Wednesday night.
Minnesota is 3-7 this season and the offense is struggling to find a flow with Edwards, Towns and Russell. The Wolves rank 27th in the NBA in halfcourt efficiency and have difficulty getting clean looks when the game goes to the fourth quarter. They look like a team that just doesn’t know how to deploy its considerable talents.
Edwards is still prone to youthful mistakes, a propensity to iso and dribble for too long and some tunnel vision. It has led to Towns standing on the perimeter and not being involved on occasion and may contribute to a quick trigger from Russell when he sees an open look because he wonders if he will get the ball back.
This is all part of the learning process for Edwards, and so much of the burden is falling on his shoulders. He is the only player on the roster who has the athleticism and ability to break a defender down off the dribble and get to the rim, so he is being asked to do that over and over again to open things up for teammates and himself.
It’s an exhausting endeavor, and Edwards said as much last week when he pointed out that no one on the Wolves is asked to do what he does.
“I ain’t going, then all the coaches looking at me like, ‘Go to the rim!’” Edwards said last week. “I’m like, ‘I’m the only one going to the rim.’ I get it, man. I have fun with it. I don’t know, man. I just try to have fun, bruh.”
But after going toe-to-toe with the Warriors, staring down Draymond Green and chirping at Wiggins, Edwards seemed a little more emboldened.
“What I said last week, I sounded like a loser,” Edwards said. “When you determined, I mean, you just gotta keep going. Tonight I just kept going. I’m going to make you make a call. Whether you make it or not, I’ll live with me missing at the rim and you not making a call. I live with leaving it up to the refs. If I do that, I did my job.”
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Too often over the years, the Wolves have just given in when things weren’t going their way. Edwards is ready to fight, and that’s going to draw respect from around the league.
One of his favorite interactions from his rookie season came during a game against the Warriors at Chase Center. Golden State again was outclassing the Wolves, but Edwards kept coming at them, throwing down dunks and not backing down. It prompted Green to give him a shoutout on Instagram after the game.
Green called Edwards’ edge “refreshing. They don’t make them like this anymore,” he wrote on his post.
That’s what the Wolves need. They are spiraling again, looking lost and frustrated. Seven years of losing appear to be taking a toll on Towns. But Edwards is still new to all of this, and he was buoyant after the game, not because he put up 48 points, but because his team battled back from a 20-point first-half deficit to make it a game in the final five minutes.
“I was just preaching keep fighting like it ain’t over,” Edwards said. “We was down 16. I think it was 63-79 or some sort. Keep fighting. It ain’t over, and we started chopping at the lead as the game went on and I just kept staying in their ear and we fought. I’m just happy.”
That will do little to quell the angst in the Wolves fan base. Something has to change. The giving in has to stop. They need some edge. Edwards isn’t here for consolation prizes and pats on the back. He knows that’s all phony anyway.
Curry and Green and the Warriors have that respect because their success demanded it and because they refused to accept that they were the same old Warriors all those years ago. Now they see a young bull with that same kind of hunger.
Edwards didn’t get the best of Curry on Wednesday night. But he has his attention.
“I don’t really care about who respects me and who don’t respect me,” Edwards said. “Like if you don’t respect me then I’ll make you respect me when I play you. I mean, yeah, if you don’t respect me, then when I play you, after the game you’re going to respect me.”
(Top Photo: Jed Jacobsohn / NBAE via Getty Images)