After beating the Los Angeles Lakers in five games, Anthony Edwards strolled down Georgia Street in Los Angeles, making his way to The Ritz-Carlton two blocks from Crypto.com Arena.
He was talking to anyone who would listen.
“They’ve been talking s— all week,” said Edwards. “‘Lakers in five.’ And then, look, when we were up 3-1, they said Lakers in seven. Go to hell today.”
Few nationally expected the Minnesota Timberwolves to beat L.A. Infamously, 10 ESPN panelists picked the Lakers to win in six or seven games. Being underdogs motivated Edwards and the Wolves. They marched into LA ready to prove they were big and bad again, and the ailments they endured over the previous year were behind them.
The beginning of the playoffs was also the beginning of the Wolves’ 2025 prove-it tour. Their first five tour dates were in front of packed crowds in Los Angeles and Minneapolis. Now, they have added additional shows in San Francisco.
As the Wolves prepare to face the Golden State Warriors in the second round, they have more to prove to those around them and to themselves before returning to the Western Conference Finals.
The Wolves had to wait four days to find out if they would play the Warriors or the Houston Rockets in the second round. In that time, Edwards was probably listening to his brother, bdifferent, while hyping himself up at the opportunity to end another superstar’s season.
He’s been defeating icons like Thanos collects infinity stones. It started with Kevin Durant in the first round last season. Then, the Wolves sent Nikola Jokić packing in a Game 7 heartbreak. This year, Ant sent LeBron James and Luka Dončić home quicker than most expected.
To the national media, this is Edwards staking his claim and proving that his time is now. To Edwards, it is just competing. However, he can’t hide that playing against the biggest names on the biggest stages strikes him differently.
“It means a lot to match up against [LeBron], man,” Edwards said with a smirk before the first round. “[He] probably goes down as the best player to ever play basketball, so trying to put him out of the playoffs under my belt – it’s going to be a tough one, but it is going to be a fun road.”
Edwards will undoubtedly be ready to take down Stephen Curry, his Olympic teammate. Adidas Basketball posted a comment on Instagram saying, “AE hungry for some Curry…” It would be another feather in Ant’s hat to send Curry home, but he and the Wolves can’t think about what the feather will look like next to the others. They also can’t think about what sportsbooks have to say about how the series will play out.
The Wolves must prove that this year’s team will not become complacent like last year’s team.
The early odds favor the Wolves to beat the Warriors, advancing them to the Western Conference Finals for a second-straight season.
It’s the first time Minnesota is favored in a playoff series since its five-game departure against the Dallas Mavericks last season. Ahead of the WCF last year, perhaps the Wolves saw what the masses said about their team after the Game 7 win in Denver. Maybe the Wolves got overconfident and didn’t take the Mavericks as seriously as they should. However, the Wolves lost mainly because they were playing on tired legs.
Regardless, the Wolves can’t let their foot off the pedal now that the sportsbooks say they will win. It was a problem for them in the regular season, and something they’ve tried to correct all year. The Timberwolves must make a statement in Games 1 and 2 at Target Center to avoid falling back into those ways.
Minnesota has had issues with complacency at home since last year’s playoffs.
“In the Denver series, we got up 2-0, probably took our foot off the gas a little bit,” Finch said on April 24 about Minnesota’s struggles at home in the playoffs last year.
This year, the atmosphere at Target Center was louder than ever against LA. Game 1 against the Warriors on Tuesday will see the return of the white-out environment and a couple of familiar foes, adding massive amounts of kindling to the fire in the stands.
Jimmy Butler has not played in Minneapolis since November 24, 2021. Wolves fans will forever have unfinished business with Butler. The boes will rain down on Tuesday from the courtside seats all the way up to row X in the upper level.
Fans would love for the Wolves to send Butler home, proving they don’t, in fact, need him in a Timberwolves uniform to win in one of the most poetic ways possible.
However, the current roster doesn’t have bad blood toward Jimmy – none of them were here when he forced his way to the Philadelphia 76ers. Most players probably don’t truly know what Butler did to the franchise.
Still, there is another foe donning the Warriors’ blue and gold that will warrant resentment from both the team and fans.
“I want to play the Warriors,” Edwards said in the summer regarding the playoffs. “I want to get to the Warriors. Wherever they’re at, I want to get to them. … Because Draymond talks so much trash. That’s pretty much the only reason.”
The last time Draymond Green was inside Target Center in the postseason was after Dončić’s game-winner over Rudy Gobert in Game 2. He was on Inside the NBA, responding to Wolves fans telling him he sucks by saying Gobert sucks.
The Wolves didn’t have a player appear on Inside the NBA for an interview after their win in Game 4 out of respect to Gobert and Karl-Anthony Towns, who the team believed received “derisive and seemingly personal criticism” from Green.
Green put Gobert in a chokehold earlier last season and used every opportunity he had to bash Gobert and Towns on national television, particularly Rudy. Draymond is no longer in a suit and holding a microphone. He’s in uniform for this series, and the Wolves will aim to prove something to him, further showing they don’t appreciate his attacks against Gobert.
The Target Center crowd will be with their team lock-step.
Minnesota earned the right to keep its 2025 prove-it tour alive. Before Edwards can parade anywhere talking his talk as his team advances to the WCF for the second-straight season, the Wolves have more to prove inside the walls of their practice facility and out.
