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By Dave McMenamin, ESPN staff writer
DALLAS — Anthony Edwards has a plan for what he needs to do to help the Minnesota Timberwolves get back into Game 3 of the Western Conference finals against the Dallas Mavericks on Sunday night.
In other words, more Anthony Edwards.
“Everybody's going to see it tonight. You're going to see a lot of shots,” Edwards said after the Timberwolves' shooting practice Sunday morning.
Edwards is averaging 20 points on 11-of-33 shooting (33.3 percent) in this series so far, but Minnesota has lost the first two games at home.
“We're going to be super aggressive,” Edwards said. “I've never taken more than 16 shots in a game before, so we're definitely going to be super aggressive.”
The 22-year-old shooting guard averaged 27.7 points on 20.3 shots in seven games in the Timberwolves' second-round series win over the Denver Nuggets.
Edwards committed a costly turnover in Game 2 against Dallas when he drove into the lane and took a dribble near the free-throw line, only to be picked off by Mavs rookie center Derek Lively II and thrown out of bounds. Edwards pivoted three times and misplaced a pass to the wing just out of reach of Naz Reid, sending the ball flying into the courtside bleachers.
He said a goal in that situation could have prevented the turnover.
“I should have shot him first,” Edwards said. “It's as simple as that.”
The ever-confident Edwards said his team was not troubled by 2-0 losses in Games 3 and 4.
“It just adds fuel to the fire going into Game 3,” Edwards said. “All my teammates are ready to go, and I think it's going to be a fun game. … I think it's a pretty good atmosphere. Everybody's smiling, everybody's joking around. We know we're a good team. We know we're not done yet. I don't think anybody's worried. We've just got to come in ready tonight.”
While Edwards took issue with offensive decision-making late in the game, Timberwolves forward Jaden McDaniels spoke about his team's late defense against Luka Doncic, whose star knocked down a game-winning 3-pointer over Defensive Player of the Year Rudy Gobert with three seconds left in the game.
“Rudy made him take some tough shots,” McDaniels said after the shooting practice, “so we're open to that. He probably would have tried to take those shots on me. So everybody takes those game-winning shots, but everybody misses them. [game winners]So there's nothing we can do but move on to the next game.”
McDaniels seconded Gobert's answer, but his body language just before Doncic took a shot on Gobert seemed to suggest he regretted his decision to take Doncic off during Dallas' pick-and-roll. Live cameras caught McDaniels almost wincing as he looked back at Gobert, stranded on an island guarding Doncic.
McDaniels explained his thinking at the time: After Doncic made a crucial shot from a similar spot on the court late in Game 1, he wanted to keep Doncic in the lineup as a way to retaliate, but made the switch at the direction of Timberwolves coach Chris Finch.
“I just wanted to guard him because he made the pass to me last game,” McDaniels said. “So I wanted to be in that position to guard him again, but I knew with the substitutions we made and what coach asked of me, I wouldn't be able to do that. So hopefully I'm not in that position again, but if I am, I'm going to try not to be substituted.”
The two home losses leave Minnesota 3-4 at Target Center this season.
The Timberwolves are on the road with a 5-1 record, including a Game 7 win in Denver to deny the Nuggets a chance to win back-to-back championships.
“It just tells you anything is possible,” McDaniels said. “In Game 7 of that series against Denver, we were down 20 points and we came together and fought back. It looks like the same thing. We're just down 2-0.”
