After trading Karl-Anthony Towns at the 11th hour last offseason, Minnesota Timberwolves guard Anthony Edwards has needed to step into a leadership role.
While Minnesota has been inconsistent with a 12-10 record, their four-game winning streak seemed to have been sparked by Edwards's comments following a loss to the Sacramento Kings on Nov. 27.
The Wolves suffered a 115-104 loss to Sacramento on that night and the frustrated fans at Target Center booed as the team walked off the floor. While Edwards called the jeers disrespectful, he also delivered a harsh truth to his team when speaking to reporters in the locker room.
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"We've been trying to figure this out for the whole year, man," Edwards said. "We thought defense was our identity, and it's not looking like that. Our identity right now, me and Mike [Conley] was talking about it, I think is we soft as hell as a team, internally. Not to the other team, but like internally we soft, like we can't talk to each other. Just a bunch of little kids, just like we playing with a bunch of little kids. Like everybody, like the whole team, we just can't talk to each other and we gotta figure it out, man, because we can't go down this road."
Those comments felt like a turning point for the Wolves, who have looked more like a team that used their defense to reach the Western Conference Finals last season.
Minnesota has won four straight games since Edwards's comments but they've held all four opponents to under 92 points a feat that hadn't been done since the Memphis Grizzlies achieved it in 2021 and the Timberwolves haven't done since 2008 per Aaron Gleeman of The Athletic.
The latest chapter in the Timberwolves' defensive lockdown came in Friday's win over the Golden State Warriors. Minnesota held the Warriors to 39 percent shooting from the floor and 11-for-29 (28.2 percent) on 3-pointers while also forcing 22 turnovers.
The most impressive part of the victory may have been Jaden McDaniels' impact on Steph Curry, who scored 23 points but was held to 6-of-17 shooting on Friday night.
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"Really just being his shadow and just knowing there will be times he hits threes and deep threes and make shots," McDaniels said of his defensive performance via Chris Hine of the Star Tribune. "But you just can't get frustrated with it. Just chasing, chasing, chasing the whole game."
McDaniels also held James Harden to 1-for-10 shooting in Wednesday's win over the Los Angeles Clippers, which also coincided with the revival of another defensive stalwart Rudy Gobert.
Gobert came alive with eight points, 12 rebounds and a block in a home win over the Clippers on Nov. 29 to begin the streak and turned it up a notch with 17 points and 12 rebounds – including six offensive boards – in a Dec. 2 win over the Los Angeles Lakers.
Gobert continued his hot play with eight points, nine rebounds and a block in Wednesday's rematch with the Clippers but he also added seven assists and five steals to help Minnesota earn a 108-80 victory.
The hot play continued on Friday night when Gobert scored 17 points to go with 11 rebounds and an emphatic alley-oop from Edwards that effectively sealed the game in the fourth quarter.
But while Edwards called out his teammates, he also is backing it up on the court. Edwards is averaging 18.8 points, 5.3 rebounds and 4.8 assists during the four-game winning streak and added another chapter on Friday with 30 points, nine assists and four rebounds in the win over the Warriors.
Edwards' play and leadership also grabbed the attention of ESPN analyst Kendrick Perkins, who called Edwards the best young leader in the game.
The Timberwolves haven't had the start they wanted to the season but the past four games have shown signs of them figuring it out. If Minnesota can extend its winning streak beginning with Sunday's rematch against the Warriors, Edwards deserves credit for rallying the troops and another milestone for a 23-year-old who keeps getting better.
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This story was originally published December 7, 2024, 5:00 PM.