There’s no way to sugarcoat it. Anthony (Ant) Edwards sucked last night. The Timberwolves were coming off an uplifting first-round win over the third seed in the Western Conference, the Los Angeles Lakers. And with the aging Golden State Warriors coming to town, it looked like they were playing another old NBA team they would eventually run off the court.
But something happened on the way to the coronation. Ant and the Wolves laid a colossal egg. They chose Game 1 of the conference semifinals to play one of their worst games of the season. And despite superstar Warriors’ guard Stephen Curry leaving the game in the second quarter with a strained left hamstring, and a late Wolves comeback, Golden State hung on to win 99-88 to take a 1-0 lead in the series.
Ant Stunk Up the Place
Coming off his dismal offensive performance in the clinching game against the Lakers (5-19 from the field), conventional wisdom was that Ant would come out of the gate strong against the Warriors and lead Minnesota to a Game 1 win. Nothing could have been further from the truth. In the first half, Ant was 0-8 from the field and 0-3 from beyond the arc as the Wolves trailed Golden State by 13 at the half. And although he recovered to score 23 points and grab 14 rebounds for the game, Minnesota never really recovered from their sluggish first half.
Two comments in particular illustrated the issue that Ant was having on the court. At halftime, TNT studio analyst Kenny Smith said he judged Edwards’ game by how many times he made it to the free throw line. And at that point, he had only been to the stripe twice. Smith’s point was that instead of hanging back and shooting three pointers, he was most dangerous when he attacked the basket. And Wolves coach Chris Finch put it more succinctly in his postgame press conference when he commented about Ant’s first-half play.
“It starts with Ant. I thought he struggled, and then you could just kind of see the light go out a little bit for a while. What is there to talk about? You’re the leader of the team. You’ve got to come out and set the tone. If your shot is not going, you still have to carry the energy. If I’ve got to talk to guys about having the right energy coming into an opening second-round game, then we’re not on the same page.”
The Wolves Road Ahead
The Wolves know they missed a huge opportunity last night, especially with Curry out of the game to take a series lead and maintain their home court advantage. However, Smith did predict that Minnesota may face some matchup problems in their series with the Warriors. Alluding to that, he said.
“Now that Jimmy Butler’s there, that’s a different scenario. [Edwards] is probably going to have to guard Jimmy Butler. Now, there’s a cross-matchup with Jaden McDaniels and/or Mike Conley which will not guard Butler. I think the Warriors actually have a matchup advantage in this series, offensively, and they’re going to be harder to guard than Minnesota for some reason.”
Now, with Curry out at least the next three games, the Timberwolves have a chance to regain the momentum in the series. But as coach Finch said. It all starts with Ant. All eyes will be on him at the start of Game 2 to see if he exhibits the energy and the purpose needed for Minnesota to succeed. Given his last two lackluster games, the stakes have never been higher for him to put on a championship performance.
