The Minnesota Timberwolves fell to the Denver Nuggets in Game 4, closing out a terrible homestand for the Wolves who came home with a 2 game lead in their Western Conference semifinals series, but Wolves’ superstar Anthony Edwards was the talk following the game after an altercation with Nuggets’ guard Jamal Murray.
“I just told his ass we love that,” Edwards said, according to ESPN’s Dave McMenamin. “‘Keep talking [like] that. That’s what we like.’ Well, I loved it. He didn’t say nothing back. But I’m pretty sure he heard me. They heard me. You live for that.”
The series is now tied as it heads back to Denver.
“He’s downhill, he’s tough to guard, he’s explosive,” Murray said of Edwards. “He’s always in attack mode, you know what I’m saying? So, I think we can just do a better job of just giving him some attention.”
Wolves big man Karl-Anthony Towns had a bad game shooting just 1-for-10 in the first half and closed out shooting 5 for 18.
“He’s a superstar,” Edwards said of Towns after the game. “He gets paid to put the ball in the rim. I always tell him, ‘Don’t you ever stop shooting the ball because you missed five or six. I don’t give a damn. In order for us to win, we need you to score.’ I’m just happy he was aggressive the entire night. That’s a win for us tonight. Him being aggressive throughout after having an off night, I guess.”
“Things weren’t falling today,” Towns said. “I take responsibility for that. I know I put the work in, so I feel good about the work I put in. It’s shown this playoffs, obviously. It’s unfortunate that on Mother’s Day I have a shooting performance like that. But it’s the way the game goes. It’s not a fun game sometimes.”
“We just got to stay connected in this locker room,” Towns said. “Even through good, bad, we always are together, and we always lean into the brotherhood that we have built here. … But it’s a test now. And we got to be willing to show the work that we’ve put into our friendships and our relationships in this team, and that work that we’ve put in all year will materialize to us either finding a way to win this series together or finding ourselves on the wrong side of history.”
With the series now tied and shifting to Denver, it appears the Nuggets have taken full control of the series.
“I don’t think they got any momentum,” Edwards said. “We won two games. They won two games. At this point, it’s whoever wins two [more] games. I don’t know how people look at it, but I look at it like I’m happy. I’m ready.
“It’s competing at the highest level. I’m smiling about it because I’m happy. I’m ready to go play. If we played tomorrow, I’d be ready. It’s going to be fun.”