Anthony Edwards Is Here

Anthony Edwards Is Here

The first quarter of the game started as a rock fight. Edwards scored his first points at the 8:46 mark of the quarter on a difficult pull-up jump shot that made it 4-3 Wolves. The game would plod on with a slow pace and wonderful defense by both teams, and Edwards would slowly start to figure out Denver’s defense.

Denver made a concerted effort not to allow Edwards to beat them with his scoring. They doubled him on every pick-and-roll, sent help on every touch, and had defenders lean his way to crowd the paint. Edwards faced a similar look in Game 5, the most he had ever been pressured in his career. The difference in Game 7 was that Conley was playing, drastically improving the spacing.

With the increased space, Edwards moved the ball quicker than in Game 5, as he displayed twice in the first quarter. At the 7:16 mark, Edwards swung the ball to Conley, who drilled a three to make the game to 7-5. Four minutes later, Edwards again faced the double as Reid passed out of a post-up to Edwards.

Edwards drove as Reid drifted to the corner, and Edwards passed out to Reid for three, giving the Wolves a 15-12 advantage at the 3:19 mark.

The first quarter ended with the Nuggets scoring eight straight and leading the Wolves 24-19. Edwards scored only two points, shooting just 1/5 from the field. His two assists were encouraging. However, it appeared Edwards was finding the increased pressure challenging to manage, settling for three three-point shots.

The Wolves started losing control of the game four minutes into the second quarter when Denver grew its lead to 12, 32-20. Chris Finch subbed Edwards out and turned to Kyle Anderson off the bench to try and kickstart an offense that scored only one point in the past 5:05 of gameplay. Anderson and the Wolves ultimately cut the lead to six before the Nuggets extended the lead back to eleven. Finch subbed Edwards in, but that didn’t stop Denver from building on their lead.

Ultimately, the Nuggets extended the lead to 15 going into halftime, 53-38. Edwards only had four points at the half, going 1/7 from the field. Edwards’ three assists were encouraging, but he was still trying to decipher Denver’s coverage on him. In the postgame interview, Edwards said that Finch kept it simple, telling him he had to make quicker decisions.

“He wasn’t really mad today,” said Edwards. “It was more like, ‘I know we going to win this game, we’ve just got to do this to win the game. He wasn’t really mad. It was just like his clips on the screen were, ‘This is what we’ve got to do to win this game. And if we do it, we’ll win. And if we don’t, we’ll lose.’ And we did that.”

The third quarter started in potentially the worst possible way. The Nuggets scored five-straight points to increase their lead to 20. At this point, the Wolves would need a historic comeback. In Game 7, no team had ever come back from a 15-point halftime deficit, let alone a 20-point deficit. Minnesota would start to chip away. Rudy Gobert‘s dunk, followed by a Jaden McDaniels three off an Edwards assist, chipped away at Denver’s lead and brought it back to 15, 58-43.

Edwards ramped up his intensity. He started to drive to the basket and make quick decisions after pick-and-rolls, which resulted in a beautiful layup. However, his shooting woes continued; he missed three shots before the make. Edwards’ attacking nature opened up more space for his teammates.

At the 6:40 mark, Edwards took the ball up after a Murray miss and burst into the lane, drawing a triple team from the Nuggets. Edwards rose toward the rim before flipping the ball to McDaniels, who knocked down a corner three. The three would cut the lead to nine, 59-50.