Timberwolves’ Anthony Edwards has ‘better team’ truth bomb ahead of Game 7 will catch Nuggets attention

Besides being a dynamic offensive player, Edwards is one of the facets of the Timberwolves that has led to arguably the best defensive team in the entire association. A member of the coaching staff who was described as the “resident architect” of that defense is Minnesota assistant coach Elston Turner who called the 22-year old a “competitor” and also expects him “to have a hell of a game” Sunday night.

“First of all, he’s a competitor,” Turner said. “He is a competitor. You can tell that from the amount of times that he’s tweaked an ankle, hurt his back, got banged up, but he never leaves the f—ing game. He never leaves the game. So I expect him to compete (in Game 7).”

“That’s half the battle. There’s no secrets, now. They know what we’re doing. We know what they’re doing,” Turner continued about opponents trying to figure out Edwards. “But he’s going to compete. He’s played in big games before with Team USA (at last summer’s FIBA World Cup). We ran him in the ground all year, had him in moments at the end of games that should have been preparing him for this — pressure moments at the end of games. So I’m expecting him to have a hell of a game, because he doesn’t back down. He does not back down.”

Edwards talks about going into his first Game 7 situation 

Edwards has also been incredible in the series as against the Nuggets, he is averaging 29.7 points, 5.5 assists, 4.7 rebounds, 1.5 steals, and 40 minutes per game (a team-high) in the series while shooting 55.1 percent from the field and 41.5 percent from deep. The one flaw people can point to when it comes to him is the inexperience since he is only 22-years old and has been through zero Game 7 situations.

“I don’t know, Steph’s probably been in 20 Game 7s,” Edwards said when asked about a mentality change with his first Game 7 Sunday. “I’ve been in zero, so I don’t know what my approach is. I’m gonna treat it like another game. I mean, I feel like I’m aggressive every game. So we’ll see how I come out. Hopefully I’m making shots. I’ll be super aggressive.”

“It’s gonna be tough, man,” Edwards continued. “They’re the defending champs, they’ve got the home court. They’ve got the crowd. It’s gonna be fun. I’m pretty excited.”

What led the Timberwolves to a dominant Game 6 victory

However, it wasn’t all sunshines and rainbows for the Timberwolves as after they took an initial 2-0 series lead, winning the first two in Denver, they would go on to lose three straight. It was a clip Minnesota watched before their huge Game 6 victory that not just amped up Edwards and the rest of the team, but made them less reactionary rather than “trying to point the finger” on someone to blame.

“I think the last three games, we (were) all down on ourselves, just trying to point the finger, blame somebody,” Edwards said via The Athletic. “And then today before the game, the coaches and the whole staff did a great job of putting a clip together (of) the plays that we made in the two games that we won against these guys. Everybody started to believe after that little edit that they put together, and I could tell the energy shifted. …So that was big time. I told them, ‘That was big time putting that edit together.’”

Minnesota got their swagger back going into Game 7 against Denver?

While basketball like a bunch of others is a team sport, the Timberwolves are going to need more than just a great performance from Edwards to be victorious against the defending champions. One other star that needs to step up is Karl-Anthony Towns who recorded just 10 points in Game 6, but said after watching that clip, they got their “swag” back.

“I think it just made us realize the swag (that) I felt we lost in the last three games,” Towns said per The Athletic. “Just to kind of visually see it, to see the way we play — the desperation, the toughness, the physicality, the emotion, and also the discipline, the execution, the tenacity. I think that we were lacking that for the last three games, and I thought that we did a great job — coaches and the staff, all the way from the top to the bottom — did a great job getting those edits, getting that film made. What a great time to pull that trick out of the hat.”

So it all comes down to Sunday night as the Nuggets are looking to get back to the Western Conference Finals after an amazing run last season. But on the other side, the Timberwolves are arguably the more hungry team as they have not been to the conference championship series since the 2003-2004 season as winning Game 7 will change that narrative.