Trailing at halftime after getting dominated on the boards, Minnesota Timberwolves star Anthony Edwards spoke up in the locker room, sparking a third-quarter turnaround and eventual 117-110 win over the Golden State Warriors to go up 3-1 in their second-round series.
“I told them, ‘We only got two wins,'” Edwards said after Monday’s Game 4, recalling his message. “I’ve never seen a series end 2-1. I told them we have to get two more wins and right now we’re playing like we already got four wins. … We had to figure it out because if we would have kept playing like that, we would have lost tonight.”
Edwards led the charge after the break, scoring 16 points on 6-for-8 shooting, nearly single-handedly matching the Warriors’ total for the quarter as Minnesota won the quarter 39-17. It was the largest positive margin for a quarter in Wolves postseason history.
“He was one of the guys that was most vocal at halftime,” Wolves coach Chris Finch said of Edwards. “[He] realized what was going on out there and we needed to be better. It started with him, really, and setting the tone.”
Edwards finished with 30 points on 11-for-21 shooting and five assists and veteran forward Julius Randle scored 31 on 11-for-21 shooting with five rebounds.
The two have been Minnesota’s pillars of production during the Wolves’ 7-2 record through the postseason thus far.
