OKLAHOMA CITY — Despite his team being outscored by 30 points in the second half of a lopsided 114-88 Game 1 loss to the Oklahoma City Thunder to open the Western Conference finals Tuesday, Minnesota Timberwolves star Anthony Edwards flashed his signature confidence afterwards.
“I feel great,” Edwards said after scoring just five points after halftime, finishing with 18 points on 5-for-13 shooting.
Edwards backed up his bravado with a plan to get back in the series in Game 2 on Thursday (8:30 p.m. ET, ESPN): less organizing the Wolves’ offense and more generating it.
“I definitely got to shoot more,” Edwards said. “I only took 13 f—— shots. … Probably just get off the ball a little more, play without the ball. I think that will be the answer. Because playing on the ball, they’re just going to double and sit in the gaps all day.
“So, got to go watch some film and pick it apart. We’ll figure it out.”
Not only were Edwards’ 13 attempts his fewest in 11 games this postseason, but only one of those bleeping attempts was taken inside the paint.
Edwards said that the Thunder’s schemes dictated his approach in Game 1. When asked if his right ankle — which he turned in the first half and caused him to retreat to the locker room to have it evaluated — affected his performance, he replied, “No.”
“I mean, they clogged the paint,” Edwards said. “That’s what they do. They don’t got much size down there, so they bank on us not making shots, I guess. Because every time I go to the rim it’s like four people in the paint.”
Indeed, the Wolves went from scoring 72 points in Game 5 of the conference semifinals to close out the Golden State Warriors to just 20 on Tuesday in Oklahoma City — the fewest paint points in a playoff game for the franchise since Game 1 of the 2004 conference finals against the Los Angeles Lakers, according to ESPN Research.
While Edwards was a willing passer, Minnesota was off the mark all night. The Wolves shot 29.4% on 3-pointers (15-for-51) – accounting for the most attempts from deep in a playoff game in franchise history.
“We had good looks, we just have to make shots,” said Wolves guard Donte DiVincenzo, who shot 3-for-12 on 3s off the bench. “Myself, I have to make a couple shots and it loosens up the defense for Ant. It’s a domino effect.”
DiVincenzo isn’t the only Minnesota player who was off beyond the arc. Nickeil Alexander-Walker was 2-for-9, Mike Conley was 1-for-5, Naz Reid was 0-for-7.
“Sometimes, the passes were late,” Wolves coach Chris Finch explained. “Sometimes we weren’t quite shot ready. Sometimes we need to turn them into other plays. But I did think we got a number of really good looks and couldn’t connect when the game was turning against us.”
Edwards figured if the Thunder are going to take away shots at the rim for him, he’d rather be the one as the recipient for catch-and-shoot opportunities, rather than constantly passing out of double teams throughout the night.
“I should be all right: play without the ball a little more, get a little more cardio in,” Edwards said. “I should be good.”
As Edwards delivered his postgame remarks, his veteran teammate, Julius Randle, sat next to him at the postgame podium.
Randle led Minnesota with 28 points on 9-for-13 shooting, but only eight of those points came after halftime – and none of those points came on 3s after he shot 5-for-6 on 3s in the first half.
“That’s on me, I got to get him the ball,” Finch said of Randle. “I got to get him more involved to start the second half.”
But a plan is just talk until its executed. Minnesota spoke ad nauseum about needing to protect the basketball in Game 1 — and proceeded to commit 19 turnovers resulting in 31 points for the Thunder.
The Wolves lost Game 1 against the Warriors, too, and reeled off four straight wins to advance. Randle said they can’t simply plan on a bounceback win in Game 2 based off that.
“We proved that we can do it, but we got to make it happen, too,” Randle said. “We can’t just be like, ‘All right, we did it last series … we’re going to do it again.’ This is a great team. They’ve been playing great basketball all year. So, the good thing is we proved to ourselves that we can do it. But we got to make it happen.”