{"id":510306,"date":"2026-01-01T19:06:27","date_gmt":"2026-01-01T19:06:27","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/510306\/"},"modified":"2026-01-01T19:06:27","modified_gmt":"2026-01-01T19:06:27","slug":"anthony-edwards-leaves-timberwolves-bench-midgame-in-shocking-scene","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/510306\/","title":{"rendered":"Anthony Edwards leaves Timberwolves bench midgame in shocking scene"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Anthony Edwards broke the cardinal rule of basketball Wednesday night.<\/p>\n<p>The Timberwolves\u2019 superstar guard got up off the bench and hit the showers early after being pulled during a timeout as Minnesota was being blown out during a 126-102 loss to the Hawks.<\/p>\n<p>Edwards\u2019 bizarre exit occurred with 7:52 remaining in the game as the three-time All-Star seemingly disagreed with coach Chris Finch, who removed his starters as the Hawks led, 109-80.<\/p>\n<p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">Anthony Edwards threw his towel during a timeout and went to the locker room with 7:52 minutes remaining in the 4th quarter \ud83d\ude2c <a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/oIIx7n1l3k\" rel=\"nofollow\">pic.twitter.com\/oIIx7n1l3k<\/a><\/p>\n<p>\u2014 Fullcourtpass (@Fullcourtpass) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/Fullcourtpass\/status\/2006560553150652755?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">January 1, 2026<\/a><\/p>\n<p>The former No. 1 pick did not speak with reporters after the New Year\u2019s Eve loss.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cObviously frustrated with the performance and rightfully so, but he needs to stay out on the floor and root for his team,\u201d <a href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=c6wC1CEYrUw\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\">Finch said postgame<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>Minnesota\u2019s star guard led the team with 30 points on 10 of 18 shooting across 33 minutes.<\/p>\n<p>As Edwards sat down for the timeout, he threw his towel behind him and began walking off the floor while his teammates simply let him exit the court.<\/p>\n<p><img style=\"aspect-ratio:1.78708551;display:block\" loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" data-modal-image=\"38069502\" width=\"1024\" height=\"573\" src=\"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/anthony-edwards.png\" alt=\"NBA player Anthony Edwards looking downcast with a scoreboard showing he has scored 30 points and the rest of the team 50 points.\" class=\"wp-image-38069502\"  \/>Anthony Edwards storms off the floor after the bech was unloaded.  @fullcourtpass\/X<\/p>\n<p>Fellow starters Donte Divincenzo and Julius Randle also sat on the bench at the same time as Edwards stormed off.<\/p>\n<p>Teammate Rudy Gobert echoed his coach\u2019s comments regarding the team\u2019s performance.<\/p>\n<p><img style=\"aspect-ratio:0.66699219;display:block\" loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" data-modal-image=\"38069504\" width=\"394\" height=\"590\" src=\"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/user-expressly-acknowledges-agrees-downloading-118079113.jpg\" alt=\"Anthony Edwards of the Minnesota Timberwolves celebrates during the game.\" class=\"wp-image-38069504\"  \/>Anthony Edwards played well while most of the team struggled.  NBAE via Getty Images<\/p>\n<p>\u201cNot like a team that wants to play for a championship,\u201d <a href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=6rlQMUAzP6A\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" data-nyp-affiliate=\"true\">Gobert told reporters<\/a> after being asked how the team played. \u201cIt didn\u2019t seem like we had any type of energy \u2026 any type of life.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cOffensively, it just seems like we were playing an individual sport, and defensively it just feels like there\u2019s not any extra effort. I think the two are connected.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Edwards has played pretty well this season to guide the Timberwolves to a 21-13 record, which makes them good for No. 6 seed in a crowded Western Conference, but he will undoubtedly have some unhappy teammates that saw him quit on the team Wednesday.<\/p>\n<p>Minnesota is 6-4 in its last 10 games and the Heat await next on Jan. 3.<\/p>\n<p>\t\t\t\t\t\t<script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Anthony Edwards broke the cardinal rule of basketball Wednesday night. The Timberwolves\u2019 superstar guard got up off the&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":510307,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[3782],"tags":[375,7,189,307,152,3954,6,373,66,308],"class_list":{"0":"post-510306","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-minnesota-timberwolves","8":"tag-anthony-edwards","9":"tag-basketball","10":"tag-miami-heat","11":"tag-minnesota","12":"tag-minnesota-timberwolves","13":"tag-minnesotatimberwolves","14":"tag-nba","15":"tag-rudy-gobert","16":"tag-sports","17":"tag-timberwolves"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nba\/115821411615707284","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/510306","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=510306"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/510306\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/510307"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=510306"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=510306"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=510306"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}