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.
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.