The Spurs Fiesta fandango at the Frost Bank Center didn\u2019t intimidate Timberwolves star Anthony Edwards.<\/p>\n
In fact, it motivated him.<\/p>\n
\u201cEverybody got on pink, blue, chanting \u2018Go, Spurs, Go.\u2019 I\u2019m with Minnesota, I got Minnesota\u2019s back at all times. I\u2019m out there with my brothers and we\u2019re going to war.\u201d<\/p>\n
Playing under a minutes restriction, Edwards scored 11 of his 18 points in the fourth quarter in his dramatic return from the knee injury that forced him to miss the final two-plus games of the Timberwolves\u2019 six-game first-round series against Denver.<\/p>\n
“His ability to bounce back and gives us whatever he had out there was huge,” said Minnesota forward Julius Randle, who had his first double-double of the playoffs with 21 points and 10 rebounds.<\/p>\n
Minnesota expected the four-time All-Star to miss the first two games against the Spurs after he suffered a bone bruise and hyperextension in his left knee on April 25. But he fought his way back onto the court to boost a team that was without guards Donte DiVincenzo (ruptured right Achilles tendon) and Ayo Dosunmu (right calf soreness).
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\u201cNobody expected him to play,\u201d Timberwolves guard Mike Conley said. \u201cIt was just his level of commitment to the game. Not just to the game, but to his teammates. It showed a lot.\u201d<\/p>\n
The Spurs said they weren\u2019t caught off guard by Edwards\u2019 return.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe practiced as if he was playing,\u201d forward Julian\u00a0Champagnie said. \u201cHe\u2019s a great player. There was no difference in strategy.\u201d<\/p>\n
Edwards finished 8 of 13 from the field and 2 of 3 from 3-point range in 25 minutes.<\/p>\n
\u201cI know for a fact, just me being out there, it calms everybody down,\u201d Edwards said. \u201cNot saying there\u2019s any pressure on any of my teammates, but it takes pressure off of everybody just knowing I\u2019m out there, I\u2019m available to play, yeah. And just doing what I do best, just trying to put the ball in the hoop.\u201d<\/p>\n
It\u2019s uncertain whether Minnesota coach Chris Finch will return Edwards to the starting lineup for Game 2.\u00a0<\/p>\n
No matter how they use him, Edwards will keep coming at the Spurs hard. That was clear in the first quarter when he turned to the Spurs bench and shouted, \u201cI\u2019m back! I\u2019m back!\u201d after he sank his first 3 with 1:27 left in the first period.<\/p>\n
Spurs forward Keldon Johnson, who finished with 11 points, had a few back-and-forth trash talking sessions with Edwards.<\/p>\n
“You expect him to just be quiet the whole game? That takes away from the competitiveness of the game,” Johnson said. “You never shy away from the competition. You go out there to compete day in, day out. And if we get to talk a little bit, then that’s fine. That’s a part of the game of basketball.”<\/p>\n
Said Spurs guard Dylan Harper of Edwards,\u00a0\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
Even with all those fans in Fiesta colors rooting against him.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Spurs Fiesta fandango at the Frost Bank Center didn\u2019t intimidate Timberwolves star Anthony Edwards. In fact, it…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":427090,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[85,46,105],"class_list":["post-427089","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-sports","tag-il","tag-israel","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/427089","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=427089"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/427089\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/427090"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=427089"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=427089"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=427089"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}