Even after losing the first two games of the NBA's Western Conference Finals, the Minnesota Timberwolves still have to feel like they have a chance to come back against the Oklahoma City Thunder. Mostly because they have Anthony Edwards, and on any given night, he is capable of taking over a game and changing it all by himself.
He did exactly that in Game 3 on Saturday night, leading the Timberwolves to a 143-101 win to get themselves back into the series.
Edwards' final stat line is impressive enough without any further context than just the numbers. He finished with 30 points, recorded nine rebounds, six assists and two steals and was 5-of-8 from three-point range.
He also was sent to the foul line for just two shots and did pretty much all of his damage offensively from the field.
It was a truly dominant performance.
And then you realize that he did all of that while playing only three quarters of the game because it became such a blowout, and the Timberwolves didn't even need him in the fourth quarter.
That makes it even more impressive.
No matter what the Thunder did to try and slow him down, it didn't matter. One of Edwards' best highlights of the night came late in the third quarter when he had three Thunder players closing in on him, and he still effortlessly hit a fade-away jumper.
THREE Thunder players contested Anthony Edwards on this midrange jumper
— Fullcourtpass (@Fullcourtpass) May 25, 2025
It didn’t matter pic.twitter.com/ikguEZOD2q
How do you even defend that? Obviously, you can't. Maybe a fourth player would have helped. But probably not.
He also joined a pretty exclusive group of players on Saturday with his 15th 30-point playoff game before his 24th birthday. It is a very short list of guards that can make that claim.
Guards with 15+ 30-point playoff games before turning 24:
— StatMuse (@statmuse) May 25, 2025
— Kobe
— Luka
— Anthony Edwards pic.twitter.com/UniQY5jNcn
Asking any player to play at this level every game over the course of a seven-game series — and especially against a team as good as Oklahoma City — is asking a lot. But Edwards is certainly capable of doing it at least a couple of times. If he has another game or two like this in him over the next week or so, it might be enough to be the difference in the series.
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