Game 4 on Sunday<\/a>, Edwards led the Timberwolves to a 3-1 lead in the first-round series.<\/p>\n\u201cWe played together at USA, and he was like a big brother to me. He looked out for me. He helped me out a lot with IQ and reading the game and everything,\u201d Edwards said, before flashing a smile. \u201cJust trying to be a pest to him out there.\u201d<\/p>\n
Edwards had 10 points, two assists and a steal over the final 4:21 of the second quarter to spur a 19-8 run by the Wolves. He picked up his only two fouls during that stretch, too, both while closely guarding James while he had the ball. On the first one, he delivered several exaggerated forearm shoves at James to try to establish his position before the whistle finally blew. <\/p>\n
After his slick pass off a drive to the paint that set up Julius Randle for a layup, Edwards was jawing at James as he bobbed his head on the way back. A few minutes later, Edwards drained a 3-pointer that brought the Wolves within 55-52 before he turned to talk trash to the Lakers who were on the bench.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s going to be physical, man,\u201d Edwards said. \u201cI wouldn\u2019t say I was trying to make a point. Just letting him know that we here: \u2018You ain\u2019t just going to push around all night.\u2019\u201d <\/p>\n
For the second straight game, the Wolves dominated down the stretch to continue a timely reversal of their regular season trend. The Wolves have outscored the Lakers in the fourth quarter of every game, by a total of 105-69 including a 32-19 edge in Game 4. They finished Game 3 on a 13-1 run.<\/p>\n
Edwards has naturally had his hand in all of the rallies, but not simply as a scorer. Teammate Naz Reid, who had eight of his 12 points in the fourth quarter and hit a go-ahead 3-pointer with 3:21 remaining to make it 108-107, credited the time Edwards spent with Team USA for his late-game development.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe knows he\u2019s going to get doubled a lot, so he\u2019s just believing in us and trusting in us,\u201d Reid said. \u201cHe\u2019s seen us put the work in, so I think he trusts us now.\u201d<\/p>\n
Edwards credited his commitment to film review and work with personal development coach Chris Hines for the clutch-time improvements. <\/p>\n
\u201cHe\u2019s been real meticulous with what he\u2019s doing late in the games,\u201d teammate Mike Conley said. \u201cHe\u2019s taking his time, really sizing up the defense, understanding where guys are going to be on the court, taking what\u2019s there and available.\u201d<\/p>\n
Edwards didn\u2019t attempt a single free throw in Game 3, and coach Chris Finch was asked before the game how the Lakers had been able to defend him without fouling.<\/p>\n
\u201cWell, they haven\u2019t. He hasn\u2019t gotten the whistle, but he\u2019s done a really good job of managing his emotions around that,\u201d Finch said, a reference to Edwards leading the league in the dubious category of technical fouls during the regular season.<\/p>\n
In Game 4, Edwards got plenty of whistles. He went 14 for 17 from the free-throw line, including a pair of makes with 10.7 seconds left after James was called for a foul on his arm that dislodged the ball from his hand as he drove to the basket and lost it out of bounds.<\/p>\n
The initial call was Lakers ball, but a replay review confirmed the foul on James.<\/p>\n
\u201cI felt like the hand was a part of that ball,\u201d James said, asserting that the rulebook should allow for that contact without a whistle. \u201cI\u2019ve seen that play over and over before, but it is what it is.\u201d<\/p>\n
Edwards upstaged two superstars on the other side \u2014 both James and Luka Doncic, who bounced back from a stomach bug that limited his energy in a lackluster Game 3. <\/p>\n
Lakers coach J.J. Redick was so impressed by the 14-0 start by his team in the third quarter that he kept the entire lineup on the floor for the rest of the game \u2014 including the 40-year-old James and the recovering-from-illness Doncic along with Austin Reaves, Rui Hachimura and Dorian Finney-Smith. <\/p>\n
\u201cThis is the playoffs. Fatigue shouldn\u2019t play any role in this,\u201d Doncic said. \u201cI played a lot of minutes, but that shouldn\u2019t play a role. I think they just executed better on the defensive end during the last minute.\u201d<\/p>\n
___<\/p>\n
AP NBA: https:\/\/apnews.com\/hub\/NBA<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"MINNEAPOLIS (AP) \u2014 Anthony Edwards learned a lot from LeBron James and the other elders on Team USA…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":3039,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[1506,375,1013,7,579,2026,2025,374,1331,376,185,150,368,371,152,577,520,6,446,11,1012,66],"class_list":{"0":"post-3038","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-nba-playoffs","8":"tag-2024-paris-olympic-games","9":"tag-anthony-edwards","10":"tag-austin-reaves","11":"tag-basketball","12":"tag-ca-state-wire","13":"tag-chris-finch","14":"tag-chris-hines","15":"tag-dorian-finney-smith","16":"tag-j-j-redick","17":"tag-julius-randle","18":"tag-lebron-james","19":"tag-los-angeles-lakers","20":"tag-luka-doncic","21":"tag-mike-conley","22":"tag-minnesota-timberwolves","23":"tag-mn-state-wire","24":"tag-naz-reid","25":"tag-nba","26":"tag-nba-basketball","27":"tag-nba-playoffs","28":"tag-rui-hachimura","29":"tag-sports"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nba\/114416769016493284","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3038","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3038"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3038\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/3039"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3038"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3038"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3038"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}