DALLAS — Anthony Edwards has a plan for what the Minnesota Timberwolves need to do to get back to the Western Conference Finals in Game 3 against the Dallas Mavericks on Sunday night:
And it’s more Anthony Edwards.
“You’ll see it all tonight, there’s going to be a lot of shots,” Edwards said after the Wolves’ shooting on Sunday morning.
Edwards is averaging 20 points on combined 11-for-33 shooting (33.3%) in the series so far as Minnesota has lost the first two games at home.
“I’m going to be very aggressive,” Edwards said. “I’ve never taken more than 16 shots a game. So I’ll be very aggressive coming out, for sure.”
The 22-year-old shooting guard averaged 27.7 points on 20.3 shot attempts over seven games in the Wolves’ second-round win over the Denver Nuggets.
Edwards had a costly turnover in Game 2 against Dallas, taking it out of bounds after driving into the lane and picking up his dribble near the free throw line when it was picked off by Mavs rookie center Derek Lively II. He spun three times and then threw an errant pass to the wing, out of Naz Reid’s reach, and sailed it into the stadium seats.
Going to score in that situation would have prevented the turnover, he said.
“I should have fired the first shot,” Edwards said. “It’s that simple.”
The ever-confident Edwards said his team is not discouraged by the predicament they face, as they head into Games 3 and 4 down 2-0.
“He did nothing but add fuel to the fire in Game 3,” Edwards said. “I think all my teammates are ready to go, it’s fun. … I think we’re in a pretty good mood. Everyone’s smiling and joking. We know we’re a good team. We know it’s not over. I don’t think so.” “I don’t think anyone is worried, I just know we have to be ready to play tonight.”
While Edwards blamed his offensive decision-making late in the game, Wolves forward Jaden McDaniels discussed his team’s defense late in the game against Luka Doncic. The Mavs star hit the go-ahead 3-pointer with three seconds left for Rudy Gobert, the Defensive Player of the Year.
“I mean, Rudy made him hit hard,” McDaniels said after the shootout. “So, I mean, we live with it. He probably would have tried to make the same shot against me. So, I mean, everyone is hitting game-winners, and they miss.” [game winners]. So there is nothing we can do about it. It’s just in the next game, really.”
While McDaniels backed Gobert in his answer, his body language before Doncic hit Gobert seemed to suggest he regretted his decision to stop Doncic when Dallas ran a pick-and-roll. The game’s broadcast cameras captured McDaniels’ face as he looked almost back at Gobert stuck on an island guarding Doncic.
McDaniels explained his thinking in that moment: He wanted to stick with Doncic to try to get some payback for Doncic hitting a tough shot from a similar spot on the floor late in Game 1, but he made the switch because Wolves coach Chris Finch called for it. He. She.
“I just wanted to guard him because he beat me the last game,” McDaniels said. “So I just wanted to be able to guard him again in the same situation. But I knew I wouldn’t be able to just because of what we were changing and what the coach asked for. So hopefully we won’t be in that situation again, but if we do, I’ll “I make sure I don’t convert.”
The two home losses dropped Minnesota’s record to 3-4 in Target Center in the postseason.
The Wolves fared much better on the road, going 5-1, including a win over Denver in Game 7 to thwart the Nuggets’ chance at a championship repeat.
“It tells us anything is possible,” McDaniels said. “In the Denver series, Denver Game 7, we were down by 20 points and we stayed together, battled. It’s kind of the same thing, we lost 2-0.”
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