The Minnesota Sports Fan syndrome had gone to epidemic levels prior to Saturday round one (game 1) matchup between the Minnesota Timberwolves and Phoenix Suns, at Target Center. That’s understandable. Playoff life for sports fans in this state has been… difficult… to say the least.
But Kendrick Perkins (ESPN) tried to warn us all week that we had nothing to worry about. Yes, the Suns weren’t the best matchup for the Wolves in round one. But… this is the best defensive team in the league AND more importantly, we have Anthony Edwards and the Suns does not.
Anthony Edward celebrates coming of age party vs Suns
When you’re right, you’re right. Ant may have slowed down a bit to end the season but there’s a reason why he’s a legitimate MVP candidate this year and pretty much a guaranteed lock to win the award, in the future. The Wolves started to show their dominance at the end of the first half, but by the 3rd quarter, Ant started cooking… and letting Kevin Durant know.
When all was said and done, Edwards finished with 33 points on 14-24 from the field (4-8 3PT), to go along with 9 rebounds and 6 assists and the Timberwolves walked away with a 120-95 victory. The lead was so large during the 4th quarter that Ant didn’t have to play half of it.
It wasn’t just Edwards. The defense team-wide was suffocating and Rudy Gobert (14 points, 16 rebounds) might have played one of the low-key best postseason games of his impressive NBA career.
Minnesota Timberwolves 1, Phoenix Suns 0
Nikeal Walker-Alexander contributed 18 points, 4 rebounds and 2 assists off the bench, Naz Reid added 12 too and the Minnesota bench completely dominated the Phoenix bench, exposing a serious depth problem for the Suns during the rest of this series. Why stop there? Karl-Anthony Towns was impressive too (19 points, 7 rebounds, 4 assists).
But today’s dominant performance against the Suns was about blossoming superstar, Anthony Edwards and his coming out party. The 22-year-old Georgia kid made it clear that there isn’t one player in this league who is better than he is, including his Team USA teammate and childhood idol, Kevin Durant.
Much like Kyle, I’m trying not to get ahead of myself, because this is a 7-game series that we were supposed to be buckling in for. And it’s very possible it could still end up being just that.
But tonight… man… tonight it certainly feels like there’s absolutely no chance that this Phoneix Suns team can hang with the talent, depth and Anthony Edwards that this Minnesota Timberwolves team is going to mob you with night in and night out the rest of this series.
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