From internal strife to winning the Lakers! What did the Wolves experience? Edwards has eliminated three MVPs in two years

Great players like to create motivation through self-motivation, such as Michael Jordan. He will turn his opponent's provocation and external contempt as motivation, and in order to maintain his motivation, he even creates a fictional conflict to add fuel to himself.

Anthony Edwards is also like this.

Timberwolves faced the third Lakers in the West as the sixth in the West. 10 ESPN reporters predicted the trend of the series, and 10 people chose the Lakers to eliminate the Timberwolves to advance. Edwards responded: "(In their opinion) the Lakers should be the winner, that's how it should be. We shouldn't be here at all." He remembered these in his heart and turned them into motivation.

On May 1, the Timberwolves defeated the Lakers away, eliminated their opponents 4-1 with a big score, achieving a lower score of 4-1, and advanced to the Western Conference semi-finals. After the game, Edwards was full of enthusiasm: "They all said that the Lakers advanced to 5 games, but the result was that we advanced to 5 games. This feeling was ten times more exciting."

This is Edwards. In Finch's words, questioning Edwards is never a good tactic, and he always desires to prove that the questioner is wrong. It is precisely because of this mentality that he can take the Timberwolves, who have experienced internal strife several times this season, through the Eye of the Storm and get to this position when they are not optimistic.

Edwards is the "one of the future facades of the alliance" that James has appointed, the Timberwolves is still not a traffic brigade. This season, the Timberwolves appearing in the headlines usually only has two things to do. Edwards scored 40+ and 50+ high scores; or Edwards blew the team and made the Timberwolves' internal uneasy public in a way that was not calm. The Timberwolves traded Towns too late. At that time, Towns had arrived in Minneapolis and was preparing to start the training camp for the new season. President Connelly suddenly completed a three-party transaction with the Knicks and Hornets, and used Towns for Divencenzo and Randall. Teams like the Clippers have already spontaneously organized mini training camps to train chemical reactions in advance. The Timberwolves did not determine the lineup until the training camp was opened, and the running-in time was too short. After the first 18 games of the season, the Timberwolves won 8 and lost 10.

After losing to the Kings and suffered four consecutive losses, Edwards mercilessly criticized the whole team for being "weak". He fired and said, "We are obviously a team that bullies the weak and fears the strong. No one said anything when we were behind. When we were ahead, we cheered and cheered, and when we fell behind again, we were silent. This is a typical bully the weak and fears the strong."

Edwards also tore open the Timberwolves' wounds to show the outside world: "We cannot communicate well with each other, just like a group of children, and it feels like we are gradually alienating each other."

When the Timberwolves struggled in the play-off area, Edwards was like a powder barrel, which exploded at a moment, and fired at the team if it was not satisfied.

In January, Edwards was hit by a double-team and his lethality was sharply reduced. Edwards has been double-teamed this season since last season's Western Conference Finals exposed their weaknesses in handling the ball. Edwards made progress in handling the ball, but the starting lineup includes Gobert, Randall, and McDaniels. The Timberwolves' space environment is not ideal.

When frustration has never suppressed sanity, Edwards will say, "They won't like what I said, so I will keep the answer in my heart." But most of the time, Edwards will be overwhelmed by frustration and say something that affects unity.

Edwards questioned that the Timberwolves could not create space for him to attack, saying, "Everyone wants me to break through, and I myself know that breakthrough is my strength, but how can I have room for breakthrough? I can't do anything without space."

When the Timberwolves' offensive efficiency was counting down, Edwards questioned the team's lack of tactics and said, "I know I will take a lot of action, and I also know Randall will take a lot of action. This is all we know, and I don't know anything else."

If you want to say that Edwards looks down on Finch's coaching ability, he will also take the initiative to defend Finch, saying that the team's problem is not the coach, but "players always like to talk back to the coach, do not play according to the coach's arrangement, and do not obey the command."

Did Edwards have no problem? When the Timberwolves lost to the Grizzlies on January 12, they had a chance to use three-pointers to defeat their opponents. Finch set up a commonly used bottom line ball tactic, which was originally a three-pointer tactic for Conley, but Edwards forced the ball to perform a singles iron. After the game, Finch said that "the second half of the tactics were not implemented well."

This season, the Timberwolves had 46 games to experience critical moments (the last 5 minutes of the fourth quarter and overtime, with a score difference of less than 5 points), a record of 20 wins and 26 losses, and a winning rate of 43.5% ranked 7th from the bottom in the league. Although Edwards scored the most points in the league at critical moments, his shooting percentage was only 42.6%, his three-point shooting percentage was 32.3%, and his plus-minus value was -51 points on the court, which was the main reason why he lost to Brunson in the selection of Best Key Master of the Year.

So this season Edwards often had emotional out of control. He received a total of 17 technical fouls and was suspended for one game. This season, Edwards received 7 fines and was fined $370,000 for his inappropriate words and deeds.

You can say that Edwards' words and deeds are immature. This is his fifth year in the industry, but he is only 23 years old. He has seen many big scenes, but he needs to digest and absorb experience and lessons in his growth process. Including the Timberwolves, the logic of offense and defense after the big trade must undergo major changes, and it will take time to determine the new play style, new rotation, and running-in. The Timberwolves experienced turmoil, but since March, the Timberwolves got on track.

As of the last day of February, the Timberwolves had a record of 32 wins and 29 losses, and their winning rate was even worse than that of the Mavericks, ranking 9th in the West. But starting from March, the Timberwolves won 17 wins and 4 losses in the last 21 games, with an 81% winning rate in the West second only to the Thunder in the same period. They were finally able to rise to the sixth place in the West and go straight to the playoffs.

In this process, the Timberwolves continued to evolve, and they regained their top defense. Randall and Divincenzo's two new players performed better, and the team's chemical reaction changed qualitatively.. When they stood in front of the Lakers, they had become a better team than the record of 49 wins and 33 losses.

Playoffs, Edwards averaged 26.8 points per game in 5 games, which is a basic operation. His gratifying link is the improvement in ball handling ability, averaging 6.2 assists per game and only 1.2 turnovers.

Randall, who performed poorly in the previous two playoff trips, removed the label of "playoff soft-footed shrimp", averaged 22.6 points per game to dominate the match, making full use of his body shape advantage.

McDaniels' regular season offensive ability was not in vain. He averaged 17.4 points per game in the series and became the team's No. 3 scorer, with a 57.4% chance of being able to use his body shape within the three-point line.

Reed is the X factor in this series and deserves to be the sixth man of the year last season. This is unsolvable for the Lakers. In the first four games, the Lakers finally managed to defeat Gobert, but Reed, who was replaced, was stronger, and could score three-pointers, misplace the basket and defend. Reid scored only 3 points in G5, but facing the Lakers without a center lineup, Gobert scored another dominant performance and scored 27 points and 24 rebounds, and the two centers complemented each other.

includes Conley, Alexander Walker, and Divincenzo. Although their data are inconspicuous and their efficiency is not high, they also play a role in certain games and rounds. Everyone says that the depth of the Timberwolves' eight-player rotation is not enough, but in front of the Lakers, the Timberwolves' eight-player team is a soldier for the whole nation, and depth becomes an advantage. In 5 games in the

series, the Timberwolves had 3 games to experience critical moments, with a winning rate of 100%. Facing the Lakers, who have a 59% winning rate at the critical moment of the regular season, the Timberwolves, who are not good at playing key balls, have become a team with better performance in key balls. In the 2024 playoffs, Edwards led the Timberwolves to eliminate Kevin Durant and Jokic, two superstars who won MVP, and lost to Doncic in the Western Conference Finals. In the 2025 playoffs, Edwards led the Timberwolves to eliminate four-time MVP winner James and take revenge on Doncic. In two years, Edwards has eliminated three former MVPs. In the next round, will Edwards' opponent be two-time MVP Curry?