DALLAS — Anthony Edwards has a plan for what the Minnesota Timberwolves must do to get back to the Western Conference finals in Game 3 against the Dallas Mavericks on Sunday night:
That is, more Anthony Edwards.
“Everyone will see tonight, there’s going to be a lot of shooting,” Edwards said after the Wolves’ shootaround Sunday morning.
Edwards has averaged 20 points on a combined 11-of-33 shooting (33.3%) in the series so far as Minnesota lost its first two games at home.
“I’m going to be super aggressive,” Edwards said. “I haven’t taken more than 16 shots in each game. So, for sure, I’ll be ultra-aggressive coming out.”
The 22-year-old guard averaged 27.7 points on 20.3 shot attempts in seven games in the Wolves’ second-round series victory over the Denver Nuggets.
Edwards had a costly turnover in Game 2 against Dallas, throwing it out of bounds after entering the lane and resuming his dribble near the free throw line when Mavs rookie center Dereck Lively II scooped it up. . He turned three times and then threw an errant pass to the wing, out of Naz Reid’s reach, taking him into the courtside seats.
He said looking to score in that situation would have prevented the loss.
“I should have fired the first shot,” Edwards said. “It’s that easy”.
The ever-confident Edwards said his team is not discouraged by the situation they face, going into Games 3 and 4 on the road losing 2-0.
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“It just added fuel to the fire for Game 3,” Edwards said. “I think all my teammates are ready to go, it’s fun… I think we are in a very good mood. Everyone is smiling and joking. We know we are a good team. We know this is not over. I don’t” . I don’t think anyone is worried. “I just know we have to come ready to play tonight.”
While Edwards blamed his late-game offensive decision-making, Wolves forward Jaden McDaniels spoke about his team’s late defense against Luka Doncic. The Mavs star hit a go-ahead three-pointer with three seconds left over Rudy Gobert, the Defensive Player of the Year.
“I mean, Rudy made him take a tough shot,” McDaniels said after shootaround. “So I mean, we’re living with it. He probably would have tried to make the same shot against me. So, I mean, everyone hits the game winners, but they miss (the game winners). So there’s really nothing we can do.” to do about it. Really, we just have to move on to the next game.”
While McDaniels supported Gobert in his response, his body language just before Doncic shot Gobert seemed to suggest he regretted the decision to pull the plug on Doncic when Dallas ran a pick-and-roll. The game’s broadcast cameras caught McDaniels almost wincing in pain as he looked at Gobert trapped on an island guarding Doncic.
McDaniels explained his thinking at the time: He wanted to stick with Doncic to try to get revenge on Doncic by making a clutch shot from a similar spot on the court late in Game 1, but he made the switch because Wolves coach Chris Finch told him to. he asked. he.
“I just wanted to protect him because he hit me in the last game,” McDaniels said. “So I just wanted to be able to guard him again in the same position. But I knew I wasn’t going to be able to do it just because of what we were changing and what the coach asked for. So I hope we can’t be in that position again, but I will. we do, I’ll make sure we don’t change.”
The two home losses dropped Minnesota’s record to 3-4 at Target Center this postseason.
The Wolves have fared much better on the road, going 5-1, including a win at Denver in Game 7 to thwart the Nuggets’ chance at a repeat championship.
“It kind of tells us that anything is possible,” McDaniels said. “In the Denver series, Game 7 in Denver, we were down 20 and we just stayed together, fought. It’s pretty much the same thing, except we’re down 2-0.”
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