Anthony Edwards may not be the best player to come out of Georgia, as the point guard said Walt “Clyde” Frazier told him during pregame warmups.
However, he was the best player at Madison Square Garden on Friday night.
In what was a hot shooting night for the Timberwolves, the two-time All-Star led the pack with 36 points, going 12-for-21 from the field in Minnesota’s 116-99 win over the Knicks to help them climb back to .500.
He also added 13 rebounds and seven assists that helped prevent the Knicks from getting a win over two former players — Julius Randle and Donte DiVincenzo — who were traded for Karl-Anthony Towns.
“I was happy [with his performance],” Edwards said after the win. “My best friend texted me before the game just trying to motivate me, like, ‘Bro they have tried us again.’ Someone on media was saying something about me. I’m not on social media, and he sends me the little posts. He just texted me, ‘Whatcha gonna do?’ So, I had to show up for him. He don’t usually text me with stuff like that. So, that was my motivation.”
The 2020 No. 1 pick didn’t start out hot, however. He shot 1-for-7 in the first quarter before getting into a rhythm.
But nothing was more notable than Edwards’ show-stopping dunk to make the game 96-89 with nearly 7 minutes to go.
He beat Jalen Brunson, who was helping off of a pick, driving into the paint and going over Precious Achiuwa for the wild poster dunk. In the three minutes prior to the basket, the Timberwolves went on an 11-2 run, and Edwards scored or assisted on all 11 points.
Edwards also was lethal from deep, shooting 8-for-13, which has been an improvement for him this season.
He is shooting more (9.9 3s per game) and making more (42.3 percent) this year compared to his 35 percent on 6.7 attempts a year ago.
“He’s really committed to taking more 3s,” coach Chris Finch said prior to the game. “We’ve always been telling him he is really good at it. He used to pass up a lot of open 3s to kind of maybe play with the ball in a different rhythm. He’s got to shoot 3s. Always been a great weapon, and now he just trusts it more.”
