On February 14, Beijing time, the NBA regular season continued, the Timberwolves won 129-120 away to the Pacers, the first quarter of this battle timberwolves also fell behind 33-37, the second quarter played a wave of 41-25, half-time lead of 12 points; the next two quarters, the Timberwolves have been dominant, although the process is some suspense, but in the end there is still a thrilling victory over the opponent.
In this game, Edwards performed quite well.
Edwards scored only five points in the first quarter, but in the second quarter of the Timberwolves' comeback, he scored 11 points in a single quarter; by the third quarter, Edwards was on full fire, 5 of 6 from three in the quarter, and once again fired 15 points.
In the end, Edwards shot 13 of 25 from the field, 7 of 13 from three-point range, had 37 points, 5 rebounds, 4 assists and 4 steals, scoring the highest score in the game, and his plus-minus on the field also reached +13, the highest among starters.
After scoring 37 points, Edwards reached a career total of 2536 points, and he also became the fourth youngest player in history to exceed 2500 points in total;
In addition, this is also the fifth time in Edwards' career that he has scored 35 points and hit five three-pointers in a single game, and only Doncic (7 times) in history has been able to play more games than Edwards before the age of 21.
So far this season, Edwards has been very good.
So far, he has played in 51 games, averaging 22.4 points, 4.8 rebounds and 3.7 assists per game, shooting 44.1 percent from the field, 36.2 percent from three-point range and 79.4 percent from free throws.
Edwards' strength is its impact, averaging 9.0 points per game on the inside this season, and his shot distribution is very magic ball, 43% of the shots are made within 9 feet of the basket, and 47% of the shots are from outside the three-point line, which is more in line with the trend of the times.
At the same time, Edwards' scoring explosive power is also very good, this season he has scored 2 40+, including 48 points against the Warriors and 40 points against the Blazers, so far in his career, Edwards has scored 4 times 40+, and only James (8 times), Durant (4 times), and Doncic (4 times) have done this in history.
However, Edwards' shortcomings are also obvious, although he can occasionally cut high scores, but his efficiency is not particularly good, this season's true shooting rate is only 55.9%, not yet the league average (56.2%);
And Edwards still has some nerve knives, take the past 7 games, Edwards has scored 5 points in two single games, namely:
— Against the Kings, 2-of-12, with 5 points
— Against the Nuggets, he scored 5 points on 2-of-8
Of course, even so, Edwards is still one of the most important cores of the Timberwolves, and the statistics show how important he really is, so far this season:
— When Edwards was on the floor, the Timberwolves scored 114.1 points/109.0 points per 100 rounds, outperforming their opponents by 5.1 points
— Edwards was not on the floor, and the Timberwolves scored 105.7 points/109.7 points per 100 rounds, netting 4.0 points against their opponents
The Timberwolves are not defensively efficient this season, and can only rank in the middle of the league, but their offensive efficiency can rank ninth in the league, which is inseparable from Edwards' contribution.
It is worth mentioning that before the game, the Timberwolves' official injury report showed that Edwards suffered a left patellar injury, which was doubtful, and edwards not only appeared on the court vividly, but also played the team's most 38.6 minutes, which is a cruel one.
Back on January 24, Beijing time, the Timberwolves game against the Nets finally, Edwards and Sharp collided with the knee and injured, and finally was helped out.
Since then, Edwards has been plagued by a knee injury, saying in an interview that his feet can't move fast, can't jump, has no explosive power, can't do anything, but even so, Edwards hasn't rested a game.
Towns said: "Edwards is a real professional player, he overcame injuries for a while, and you have to give him praise for that. ”
The main reason why Edwards does not want to take a break is that the Timberwolves are in a critical stage of impacting the playoffs — the Timberwolves have won 6 of the last 8 games, and currently have a record of 30 wins and 27 losses, ranking seventh in the West, and only 4.0 wins away from the fifth-place Lone Rangers in the West (33 wins and 24 losses), 7.0 wins ahead of the tenth Blazers (23 wins and 34 losses).
Therefore, the performance of the Timberwolves is worthy of recognition, Edwards' performance is even more exciting, he is definitely the next superstar of the league, is expected to become the next façade level figure, but before that, still hope that Huazi can play the ball leisurely, should be hughed, do not be strong.