DALLAS – Minnesota Timberwolves guard Anthony Edwards turned to veteran teammates Mike Conley, Kyle Anderson and Karl-Anthony Towns – and anyone else within earshot in their locker room – and expressed his sincere desire to fight in Western Conference final.
“Well, we’re here now guys. What are we going to do? We are here now KAT. What are we going to do?’” Edwards said loudly during a pep talk in the Timberwolves locker room Sunday night after losing to the Dallas Mavericks 116-107 in Game 3 at the American Airlines Center. The Mavericks now own a 3-0 lead in the best-of-seven series and are one win away from the NBA Finals No team in NBA playoff history has ever won a series after losing 3-. 0. The Mavericks will host a potential Game 4 for the series on Tuesday.
Adding to injury-plagued Dallas’ motivation to win now is earning a much-needed week off before Game 1 of the NBA Finals on June 6. Mavericks guard Kyrie Irving is also an NBA record 14-0 in closing playoff games. career.
So, Edwards and the Timberwolves are clinging to threads of hope. For what?
*The Mavericks are the first NBA team to take a 3-0 series lead despite trailing any time in the final five minutes of the fourth quarter of every game since 1998, according to ESPN Stats & Info.
*Every game in the Western Conference Finals is decided in the final three minutes. The Mavs outscored Minnesota 24-11 over the final three minutes of the fourth quarter in all three contests.
*The Timberwolves are also 0 of 7 on 3-pointers in the final three minutes of the fourth quarter in the Western Conference finals.
*Dallas has just a 13-point differential in the series, which is the second-lowest in NBA history compared to a team in the playoffs with a 3-0 lead.
With all of those fourth-quarter and clutch stats in mind, Edwards believes his team has the ability to take down a beatable team in what would be a historic four-game winning streak.
“I’m never negative. I always look at things on the positive side,” Edwards said after recording 24 points, nine assists and nine rebounds in 43 minutes in Game 3. “We were 104-104 with three minutes remaining. We got the shots we wanted. We just disappeared, man. We can’t beat a team if we can’t make shots.
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Edwards’ high-flying Jordan dunk over Mavericks center Daniel Gafford in the third quarter of Game 3 could have gone down as one of the greatest in NBA playoff history if the Timberwolves had won. But Edwards is averaging 22 points on 38.6 percent shooting from the field and has missed 14 of 21 3-pointers in three playoff games against Dallas. After shooting 44 percent on dribble shots in the first two rounds of the playoffs, Edwards is shooting just 29 percent on those shots in the Western Conference Finals, according to ESPN Stats & Info. Towns is shooting 27.8 percent from the field in this series, tied for the fourth-worst field goal percentage through the first three Conference Finals games of the Shot Clock era.
Mavericks stars Irving and Luka Doncic each scored 33 points in Game 3 and entered the conversation for the greatest NBA offensive backcourt of all time. The hot-shooting Mavericks score at will on alley-oops and shoot 71 percent from the field with Timberwolves center Rudy Gobert, the 2024 NBA Defensive Player of the Year, as their primary defender.
Despite the grim statistical reality, Edwards offered a smile and, in search of answers, engaged in an honest discussion with his teammates after the game. Conley said Edwards and several other teammates constructively criticized and encouraged each other. Edwards also tried to cheer up dejected goalkeeper Nickeil Alexander-Walker, who scored three points in 20 minutes. And after the postgame press conference, Edwards tried to ignite Towns by telling him the media was asking him about his shooting struggles.
“He’s a guy that not only tries to get guys going, keep them positive, but he’ll be on himself, be the first to say he didn’t have it, he didn’t have it not brought or that he shouldn’t have is better, it’s better,” Conley said of Edwards. “So he’s holding himself accountable. , look in the mirror and hold ourselves accountable to see him do this at 22 years old is impressive. We wouldn’t be in this position right now without this kind of guy.
As Edwards headed to the Timberwolves bus, he told Andscape that he didn’t feel pressure, that he had overcome tougher obstacles growing up in the Atlanta area and dealing with tragedies family before joining the NBA. The 2024 All-NBA Second Team selection added that he has extreme confidence in himself from his days in Little League Baseball.
“I never think the sky is falling. I don’t know. I’m always positive, always happy. I did the work so that the sky would never fall on my head,” Edwards said.
A 17-year NBA veteran, Conley, 36, has never been to the NBA Finals and realizes this could be his last opportunity. With the odds stacked against the Timberwolves, Conley admitted intrigue in Edwards’ vision of what would be the greatest comeback in NBA playoff history.
According to Conley, Edwards has Superman ability, and anything is possible if the budding star who has been compared to Michael Jordan finally finds his cape.
“He might not feel the pressure because he doesn’t really understand the severity of it,” Conley told Andscape. “I say that all the time, it’s ignorance of the youth we have. Maybe I’m the only one who really feels it. I’m 36 years old, I haven’t been here often. So for him it’s like, “This is fun…”. He doesn’t apply pressure in the same way that I might, but that’s also what makes him what makes him.
“He can just come out here and be himself without feeling that much.” Ant-Man is going to play well. He just has to do it. We need him to be Superman, man.