For most of the night, Anthony Edwards watched as his former teammate from the FIBA World Cup, Jaren Jackson Jr, was “cookin’,” as Edwards put it.
Anthony Edwards, Timberwolves take one half to get untracked before polishing off Grizzlies
Anthony Edwards played 40 minutes in the second game of a back-to-back and had 25 of his 34 points in the second half to lead the Timberwolves to their seventh win in their past eight games.
The Minnesota Star Tribune
February 29, 2024 at 1:00PM
He wanted to put a stop to it. So even though he was giving up about six inches of size, he told coach Chris Finch he wanted the matchup with Jackson.
“We couldn’t guard him,” Edwards said. “I said … ‘I might as well try.’”
Edwards’ physicality helped put the clamps on Jackson, then Edwards turned on the faucet offensively as he led the Timberwolves to a 110-101 victory over the Grizzlies on a tail end of a back-to-back where the Wolves didn’t have a full tank of gas.
They fell behind 14-0 in the first quarter, then were behind 11 in the third when Edwards switched on to Jackson, who had 33 points overall, but just four points after that moment in the third. Then after the game, Edwards did a little campaigning for himself to make the All-Defensive Team, saying voters should be watching more of the Wolves.
“They just got to watch the games because this is not my first time doing this,” Edwards said. “I have nights like this all the time where somebody gets hot, their best player gets hot and I go shut ‘em down the rest of the game.”
Then Edwards started getting out in transition and finding room with back cuts against a Memphis defense that was denying him the ball on the perimeter. The Wolves unlocked him in the third quarter, when he had 17 points on 5-for-6 shooting to go with six free throws.
“He took the Jackson matchup and shut his water off and turned the game around on both ends,” Finch said.
The Wolves then held the Grizzlies, who are down several injured key contributors in a season of misery, to just 16 points in the fourth quarter, even as they opted to keep Rudy Gobert on the bench down the stretch, since the unit that was on the floor was playing so well defensively. The Wolves got another strong offensive night from Naz Reid, who had 19 points while Karl-Anthony Towns, who returned from a one-game absence to mourn the death of a friend, returned with 13 points.
They got a bounce-back effort from Jaden McDaniels, who had 12 points and three blocks as part of a strong defensive effort in the second half. That included drawing an eight-second call with the Wolves up six with 3 minutes, 24 seconds to play.
“It was a great, huge return-to-form game for Jaden,” Finch said.
Reid and McDaniels, along with Nickeil Alexander-Walker (12 points, five assists, four blocks) provided some needed shots of energy when the Wolves lacked it, but without Edwards awakening from his early frustrations, the Wolves likely do not win. He became frustrated with Memphis’ aggressive style of defense early on and had just nine points on 2-for-7 shooting in the first half. His teammates weren’t feeling much better, especially when they fell behind by 14 early.
“You could see we didn’t have a ton of juice,” Finch said. “With the way they were gonna guard us, they were gonna force us to put the work in offensively. I just kinda knew it was gonna be like that. I wasn’t losing my mind.”
That’s because the Wolves have gutted out more wins like this than they have dropped this season. As Alexander-Walker said, it was clear Wednesday was going to be a “mental toughness” game.
“Just got to play hard, not really looking to the next day,” Alexander-Walker said.
Finch deployed Edwards with that mindset. He sent Edwards back in the game around the nine-minute mark of the fourth quarter, earlier than he typically does. Edwards ended up playing nearly 40 minutes even after turning an ankle during Tuesday’s win against San Antonio. That was OK, as long as the Wolves won, no matter how well or poorly they played.
“I come from winning 20 games my rookie year, so I don’t care how we win,” Edwards said. “If we win the game, I’m happy. I have nothing bad to say.”
Note: Forward Kyle Anderson missed the game because of a left knee sprain. Finch said he wasn’t sure of how long Anderson might be out but said the injury seemed to be more “day to day” than long term.
Despite so-so record, Wolves have improved at crunch time.
