Anthony Edwards arrived in Los Angeles on Thursday evening with angels and demons hovering over the shoulders upon which the Minnesota Timberwolves’ playoff hopes rest.
LeBron James and Luka Dončić stand in his way, and there are so many who want to make this series out to be a battle between the Lakers’ legends and the young wolf who wants to hunt them down. They whisper into Edwards’ ear that Minnesota’s only hope is for him to take over, that taking down Luka and LeBron would elevate him to a new level of stardom in the league’s universe.
On the other shoulder, the voices of his 37-year-old point guard and his 55-year-old head coach work to drown out the noise. Both are too old to be worried about trivial narratives. Both understand that opportunities like the one they have right in front of them are hard to come by. They have been telling him all week long that patience and focus will be so much more important once this series begins on Saturday night than any urge Edwards may have to stake his claim to the throne.
“It’s going to be a big series for Ant,” Mike Conley said. “He’s got to be able to grow up right in front of us and be able to handle what he’s about to experience. It’s going to be a lot of trying to get the ball out of his hands. They’re going to try to be smarter than us, they’re going to try to outwit us in a lot of different areas.”
The 40-year-old James remains an athletic marvel, but even he cannot match Edwards’ physical prowess for a long series. Dončić’s game is predicated on leverage and angles, not quickness or elevation. But the teammates are two of the most intelligent basketball players to ever play, and they have a cerebral coach in JJ Redick who will likely try to lure Edwards into a chess match rather than a boxing match.
The Lakers are going to try to use all of that ambition coursing through Edwards’ 23-year-old veins against him. They are going to throw a variety of defensive coverages at him. The Wolves are anticipating that the Lakers will aggressively double Edwards over and over again to fluster him into sloppy turnovers and forced, well-defended shots.
“He’s got to be patient,” Conley said. “He’s got to be able to be thinking ahead of the game. LeBron does it all the time. Ant, you’ve got to start looking at the second and third layer of things. Doing it for your teammates, doing it for yourself, make the game easier for yourself.”
That is what made the Timberwolves’ 8-1 finish to the regular season so important. They were able to secure the No. 6 seed in the Western Conference playoffs and avoid the Play-In Tournament, which gave them a week to practice and prepare for the Lakers. In his five seasons in the league, Edwards has proved to be incredibly coachable, a willing listener and diligent worker when it comes to digesting and adhering to the game plan.
The Wolves got four good practices in this week to build a plan of attack, watch film and prepare him to face a team led by two players who have seen everything there is to see on a basketball court. It worked wonders for Edwards last year, when the Wolves made the necessary adjustments heading into their first-round series against Phoenix to sweep the Suns.
The Lakers are a different animal. Dončić wreaked havoc on the Timberwolves in last year’s Western Conference finals, averaging 32.4 points, 9.6 rebounds and 8.2 assists in the Dallas Mavericks’ emphatic 4-1 series victory. Now in Los Angeles, he will be only too happy to see Rudy Gobert, Jaden McDaniels and the Timberwolves again. This time, he has James by his side, and the tandem enters the playoffs with full belief that they can come out of the West.
It’s a dream matchup for Edwards, who has never met an opposing star that he doesn’t want to take down. The win over Phoenix last year was special for him because it came at the expense of his childhood hero, Kevin Durant. Now he has Dončić, the Timberwolves tormentor, and James, his Team USA teammate at the Paris Olympics, in his sights.
“It means a lot to match up against him, man,” Edwards said of James. “Probably goes down as the greatest player to ever play basketball. Trying to get putting him out of the playoffs under my belt is going to be a tough one, but it’s going to be a fun road.”
Edwards has seen what happens when he tries to turn a game into a personal battle. In early December, the Wolves went to San Francisco and smacked the Golden State Warriors at Chase Center, the first time Edwards and Stephen Curry had seen each other on the court since they won gold together at the Paris Olympics. In the second game of the two-game set in the Bay Area, the Wolves led by one point in the fourth quarter when Edwards decided to try to beat Curry in his house all by himself.
He unleashed a flurry of haymakers in the final four minutes, all aimed at knocking Curry and the Warriors out. They all missed. Every one of them. Edwards went 0 of 6 with a turnover down the stretch, his decision-making contributing to a closing kick from Golden State that carried the Warriors to a 114-106 win.
The Lakers will try to lure Edwards into the same trap, but his coaches have seen a marked improvement in his ability to read the game as the season has worn on. He was doubled more than any player in the NBA this season, something that frustrated him greatly earlier in the year. But he has gradually figured out how to handle it when opposing defenses blitz him in the pick-and-roll to force the ball out of his hands. He is making the read quicker, getting the ball to his teammates faster and putting himself in position to get it back and attack in a way that wasn’t there in November.
“All those different coverages they throw at him prepared him for this moment,” offensive coordinator Pablo Prigioni said. “He’s in the perfect spot at this point to just make the right play. He used to pass as a last resort, or late. He’s been doing a good job of being pass ready, expecting they’re going to jump two on the ball, quick pass, get it off quick.”
In the Wolves’ 17-4 finish to the season, Edwards averaged 28.2 points per game and 4.9 assists. He topped 40 points four times in that span, showing that he can still be an explosive scorer even when he needs to get off the ball to avoid traps and doubles.
“His recognition of what’s going on has gotten better and better,” Wolves coach Chris Finch said. “His ability and timing of making the right play and the right read has gotten better and better. His frustrations about how teams guard him, I think he now embraces it. So the maturity around it has gotten better.”
As soon as the Wolves found out they were playing the Lakers on Sunday night, players’ phones started buzzing with notifications from Edwards, who was lighting up the team chat. Conley said he saw the expression on Edwards’ face change immediately when he found out who they were facing.
“He’s been locked in since we knew we were playing the Lakers,” Conley said. “He was already texting the group and getting us all ready and watching film and getting ready to go, so I know he’s going to be ready.”
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When Edwards addressed the media this week, the tone in his voice was different. He typically likes to avoid meeting with reporters after practices, instead sharing his thoughts after games. But when he was requested on Wednesday, Edwards dutifully strode to the podium and took the message he has been conveying privately to his teammates out into public view.
“At this point in the season, it don’t matter who gets 20 points, 30 points,” Edwards said. “It don’t matter if I have five points. It don’t matter if Julius (Randle) has five points. Some nights it might be Naz (Reid) gets 30. This whole series, Jaden might average 25.
“It doesn’t matter who gets all the buckets and shots, man. We gotta be willing to shoot the ball, no matter if we making or missing shots. We gotta be confident. We know it’s going to be a tough battle.”
He has told Conley and McDaniels to be ready to shoot and shoot often. Edwards is anticipating ultra-aggressive two-man defense on the Lakers’ part because he’s seen so much of that of late. He told Nickeil Alexander-Walker to be ready to score because “this may not be the Ant series” given how much attention he could draw on the perimeter. He also knows he can’t have his head in the clouds on defense when he’s off the ball.
“I gotta be locked in off the ball because I know they may try to attack me when I’m not on the ball,” Edwards said. “So I’ve got to be locked in on cutters and stuff. Because on the ball, I’m not really worried. I’m going to play pretty good defense. I just gotta be willing to compete.”
In his young career, Edwards has already taken down his favorite player in Durant. He toppled the defending champion Nuggets in Denver in Game 7 last year, which put the Wolves in their first conference finals in 20 years. He led the league in 3-pointers made this season.
So many things have gone right for Edwards, but there is still such a long way to go. The pressure he will face from the Lakers defense will be real. His ability to rise above that and consistently make the right read and the right play won’t be easy, but it will be required.
“It’s necessary for us to win, honestly,” Conley said. “If we’re going to have a chance to win that series, he’s got to be that guy. And I think he can be and will be for us.”
Edwards said all the right things in advance of his fourth trip to the playoffs. The understanding is there. Now it is time for him to apply it.
“He’s going to be aggressive, he’s going to be Ant,” Alexander-Walker said. “That’s not a doubt. But making sure everyone is right there with him. All of us, as one, getting to that goal, that finish line together. Picking everybody up, which is going to be huge, especially when you start the series on the road.”
Lest anyone be concerned that all of this newfound maturity has chipped away at Edwards’ trademark swagger, he was asked about the overwhelming number of national media outlets picking the Lakers to win the series.
“I just love it. It’s dope,” Edwards said. “I love the fact that everybody wants the Lakers to win. That’s how it’s supposed to be. They don’t want the Timberwolves to win. I get it.”
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(Top photo: Justin Ford / Getty Images)
