{"id":651375,"date":"2026-05-05T15:39:08","date_gmt":"2026-05-05T15:39:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/651375\/"},"modified":"2026-05-05T15:39:08","modified_gmt":"2026-05-05T15:39:08","slug":"edwards-helps-timberwolves-to-win-over-spurs-despite-wembanyamas-playoff-record-nba","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/651375\/","title":{"rendered":"Edwards helps Timberwolves to win over Spurs despite Wembanyama\u2019s playoff record | NBA"},"content":{"rendered":"

Anthony Edwards announced to the San Antonio Spurs<\/a> he had returned \u2013 not that anyone in the sold-out Frost Bank Center needed to be told.<\/p>\n

The Timberwolves guard made an unexpected return 10 days after hyperextending his left knee, leading Minnesota to a 104-102 victory on Monday night in Game 1 of the Western Conference semi-finals.<\/p>\n

After hitting his first three-pointer with 1:27 remaining in the first quarter, Edwards turned to the Spurs bench and screamed: \u201cI\u2019m back! I\u2019m back!\u201d<\/p>\n

They were already fully aware.<\/p>\n

The four-time All-Star had 18 points, including 11 in the final quarter as the Timberwolves held on to hand the Spurs just the second loss in their past 17 series openers at home.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat\u2019s kind of who he is,\u201d San Antonio guard Dylan Harper said. \u201cSuperstar in this league. He\u2019s going to come back and have games like that even though he hasn\u2019t played for a little bit.\u201d<\/p>\n

Edwards, who averaged 36.7 points, 4.0 assists and 3.0 rebounds in three games against the Spurs this season, has stated previously that he enjoys competing against San Antonio star Victor Wembanyama<\/a>. They had another duel in Game 1. Wembanyama had 11 points, 15 rebounds and set an NBA postseason record with 12 blocked shots.<\/p>\n

\u201cI don\u2019t think me coming back was because of nothing they got going on,\u201d Edwards said. \u201cIt was more so I want to be out there with my brothers. Yeah, just that simple.\u201d<\/p>\n

Edwards was expected to miss at least the first two games of the series in San Antonio, but the guard expedited his rehabilitation to play in the opener. He was cleared to play 90 minutes before the scheduled tipoff Monday night when Minnesota coach Chris Finch simply said: \u201cHe\u2019s in.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cHe loves to play the game,\u201d Finch said. \u201cWe dodged a bullet when it happened. He\u2019s done an incredible job. Our medical staff has done an unbelievable job of getting him to this point. And he was super motivated by the fact that we were able to get that first series. I think that was kind of a little bit of an inspiration for him, too, just gave him something to work towards.\u201d<\/p>\n

Edwards suffered a bone bruise, in addition to hyperextending his left knee, on 25 April during Game 4 of Minnesota\u2019s opening-round series against Denver.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think I got the best physical therapist in the world with David Hines,\u201d Edwards said of the Timberwolves\u2019 vice-president of medical operations and performance. \u201cSo, just trusting him and working through all the pain that I felt throughout the first two days, three days, and just getting in the pool, running on it. Band work. Just a lot of resistance. So, yeah, he got me right.\u201d<\/p>\n

Wembanyama was confident his team can come back in the series.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe have to be better,\u201d Wembanyama said. \u201cIt shows up on the stat sheet. We need to figure out before 48 hours what we can do better and I\u2019ve got no doubt that we will. I trust us.\u201d<\/p>\n

Philadelphia 76ers 98-137 New York Knicks<\/p>\n

In Monday\u2019s other game, Jalen Brunson scored 27 of his 35 points in the first half and the New York Knicks emphatically added to a historic postseason roll by overwhelming the Philadelphia 76ers 137-98 in Game 1 of the Eastern Conference semi-finals.<\/p>\n

The Knicks became the first team in NBA<\/a> history to win three straight postseason games by at least 25 points, continuing a wave that began midway through the first round against Atlanta by shooting 63% from the field and leading by 40 points.<\/p>\n

OG Anunoby added 18 points on 7-for-8 shooting, while Karl-Anthony Towns and Mikal Bridges both had 17, with Towns adding six rebounds and six assists in just 20 minutes.<\/p>\n

After trailing 2-1 against Atlanta, the Knicks have won four straight games by a total of 135 points. They are the first team since detailed play-by-play began in 1996-97 to lead three straight playoff games by at least 30 points, according to Sportradar.<\/p>\n

Game 2 is on Wednesday night before the series shifts to Philadelphia \u2013 with Joel Embiid already pleading with 76ers fans not to sell their tickets<\/a> to Knicks fans.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Anthony Edwards announced to the San Antonio Spurs he had returned \u2013 not that anyone in the sold-out…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":651376,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[557],"tags":[64,63,590,85],"class_list":["post-651375","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-nba","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-nba","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/651375","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=651375"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/651375\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/651376"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=651375"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=651375"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=651375"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}