Carl-Anthony Towns was sidelined during the post-match interview. The two men had a friendly debate about who was the best scorer in the team.
Edwards considers himself the team's top scorer. Edwards added a condition to his statement, he said. "In the case of a sudden outburst", he is the best shooter. Towns said: "Edwards thinks he's the strongest baseball player, the rugby player, the best skier, the best curler, the best race walking, the best running..."
Edwards interjected: "As long as it is a sport, I am the strongest in the world." ”
Towns replied, "There's definitely a chance for you to explode." ”
On Dec. 16, Anthony Edwards exploded with 38 points on 10-of-14 shooting from three-point range, and the Minnesota Timberwolves beat regular-season MVP Nikola Jokic's Denver Nuggets 124-107 to end the Timberwolves' 12-game losing streak against the Nuggets.
Towns and D'Angelo Russell had 32 points, four rebounds, four assists and 16 points, eight rebounds and seven assists, respectively, and the Timberwolves shot 23-of-48 from beyond the three-point line, including 16 three-pointers in the first half.
That night, Edwards was unstoppable. Edwards, 20, surpassed Kyrie Irving (22) to become the youngest player in NBA history to hit at least 10 three-pointers in a single game. At the same time, he also set a new record for the number of three-pointers hit in a single game in the league this season, after Stephen Curry made nine three-pointers in a single game.
With a 71.4 percent three-point shooting percentage, it sounds intimidating. The confident Edwards thinks he can hit every shot.
"My teammates did a great job and told me to just do it myself and just do it. It doesn't matter if I feel hot or not. Edwards said, "If I don't shoot, Patrick Beverley stares at me like crazy." The coach (Chris Finch) also looked at me frantically. Everyone would look at me like crazy and like, 'What are you doing?' I feel like they've given me more confidence than I already have. ”
After scoring 38 points, Edwards became the youngest Mr. 2,000 in Timberwolves history, but he wasn't the only one in the game to reach a career milestone. Towns, who scored 32 points, also exceeded 10,000 career points.
That also allowed the Timberwolves to have more than one leader on the court and in the locker room.
"If I stay focused and united with Downs, we'll win more games. You have to pick a cup of poison, and I don't want to let Downs shoot the whole game, and if you give him 15 open three-point opportunities, he can hit 12. ”
In the middle of the third quarter, the Nuggets relied on Jokic's layup to chase the score to 88-76, but the Timberwolves quickly responded, with Edwards and Towns each scoring three-pointers to lead the team to a 13-2 offensive climax. The Timberwolves led the Nuggets by 23 points.
Jokic sent his sixth triple-double of the season, with 27 points, 10 rebounds and 11 assists, but it was difficult to stand alone. The Timberwolves' offense rarely seemed so crisp during the game, and the Nuggets never trailed the score to within 10 points in the second half.
Prior to this game, the Timberwolves had the 23rd highest three-point shooting percentage in the league this season, but the team shot 48 percent from the field, hitting 23 three-pointers. Five players on the team have made at least three three-pointers. It is worth mentioning that the Timberwolves' starting five-man group this year, Towns, Beverley, Russell, Edwards and Jared Vanderbilt, are the combination with the highest net efficiency value in the league (+50).
With 9:23 left in the game, nuggets' Marcus Howard injured his left leg while scrambling for the ball. The injury made the already unprofitable Nuggets even worse. He limped off the pitch and was carried back to the dressing room. Howard's left leg is no longer able to bear the weight.
This year, Edwards averaged 22.1 points, 5.8 rebounds and 3.6 assists per game, second only to Carl Anthony Downs, who averaged 24.3 points per game. Edwards exploded in the second year of his career. Against the Golden State Warriors, Edwards scored 48 points, five rebounds and five assists on 20 years and 97 days, becoming the fourth player to score at least 40 points before the age of 21 after James, Doncic and Durant.
"I'm here to put the ball in the basket at a high level, and if I don't, what am I going to do?" Edwards has more than once shown his unique confidence and competitiveness to the media.
Finch said of Edwards after the game: "The challenge he faces now is how to keep himself down to earth. Play the ball in the same type of way and don't relax. And then keep superimposing such performances. ”
It's not that Edwards shoots 10 three-pointers like this every night, and head coach Finch wants him to play smarter and make the right shooting choices instead of attacking.
Edwards took this to mind at the end of the game. Timberwolves assistant coach Pablo Prigioni reminded him that he still has a tendency to be unstable.
Edwards humbly accepted Prigioni's reminder. He said: "Like Prigioni told me after the game, 'Listen, every time you play a great game, you come back and you go downhill. "So, in my mind I've left this game behind and focused on the upcoming game. I can't play this way this time and then the next one is going to be really bad. I can't treat my teammates like that. ”
Edwards slowly developed from the third or fourth best player on the team to the second or even best player in the team. In the competition for the best rookie, he was inferior to the same tandem Ramello Bauer, but now this is less important. Like Bauer, he is gradually reaching his limitless potential.