Anthony Edwards is miraculous.
The shots he takes. The shots he makes. The trash-talking he hurls at anyone at any time. Edwards is a miraculously great player who is addicted to competition. And when he can’t have that competition, Edwards takes whatever measures necessary to pump that competition back into his veins.
Over the weekend, he was running in a pool. He was doing hyperbaric chamber sessions. Whatever it took to recover as fast as possible from the hyperextension and bone bruise in his left knee that he suffered in Game 4 against the Denver Nuggets.
Initially, Anthony Edwards was expected to miss weeks. But as Game 1 in Minnesota’s second-round series against the San Antonio Spurs drew closer, the odds of him expediting the original timeline improved. And just nine days after his injury, Edwards was back in the lineup in the Wolves’ 104-102 Game 1 win on Monday.
It was a miraculously quick turnaround for Edwards. Perhaps it was too quick. How healthy was he? Was he going to be anywhere close to his usual self? Would he be severely compromised to the point where he’d be a liability on the floor?
His teammates weren’t concerned. They also weren’t surprised by his return.
“Last year, I am on record calling him Wolverine,” Julius Randle said during shootaround before Game 1. “I’m not surprised. … He loves to play the game, so he’s going to do whatever he can to put himself in a position to be out here.”
Early on during Randle’s first season in Minnesota, he became familiar with Edwards’ resiliency — watching the four-time All-Star pop back up after taking a nasty fall in practice as if nothing happened. Edwards does it all the time. But after he landed awkwardly on his left leg and limped back to the locker room in Game 4 against Denver, it seemed highly unlikely that he would come bouncing back out of the tunnel.
A nagging right knee injury kept Anthony Edwards sidelined for 11 of the final 14 regular-season games. And then, he bruised his left knee and hyperextended it. Most players would be out multiple weeks. Had that been the case for Edwards, there was a legitimate chance that his season could be over.
However, Edwards is miraculous. He missed Minnesota’s series-advancing Game 6 win over the Nuggets on Thursday because he was extensively rehabbing to return early in the second round.
“I called him my hero before the game,” Mike Conley said after Game 1 on Monday. “It’s something that you look up to somebody for what he just put himself through in the last week just to get ready for Game 1. I mean, nobody expected him to play. Just his level of commitment to the game. Not only to the game, but to his teammates. He just showed a lot. The respect that he has for us. The opportunity we have in front of us. That speaks volumes for how he came out here and played.”
Chris Finch was transparent with Edwards ahead of Game 1: He would play under a minute restriction and come off the bench. Edwards was nowhere near 100% in Game 1, wearing a pretty thick wrap on his left leg, but players rarely are at this stage of the season. The Wolves also didn’t need Edwards at his absolute best in Game 1. Still, they needed him to look healthy. He had to be able to move around the court in a way that allowed him to generate efficient offense without being a liability on defense.
Edwards’ early three-point make showed the type of player he would be Monday night.
Edwards stopped on a dime and pulled a three-pointer in Keldon Johnson’s face. The ball rolled through the net as the Frost Bank Center crowd groaned with Edwards yelling “I’M BACK” at the top of his lungs. It was one of those shots. The type of momentum-shifting bucket that Edwards has made a patented part of his game. The type of bucket that Finch hasn’t seen too much recently.
“He was really good,” Finch said after the game. “I forgot how good he was, actually.”
Anthony Edwards finished Game 1 against the Spurs with 18 points in 25 minutes off the bench. He shot 8 of 13 (61.5%) from the floor and 2 of 3 (66.7%) from three while also pulling down three rebounds, dishing out three assists, and emphatically blocking a shot in the fourth.
Edwards moved very well in Game 1. He was quick and shifty with the ball in his hands, going north to south with his usual burst, precision, and smoothness. He was starting and stopping decisively, hesitating, and making the right play consistently. Edwards was moving like a well-oiled, finely polished muscle car. But under the hood, he was rusty. He grimaced several times during the game after jumping and landing on his left leg. Still, that didn’t stop him from humming along offensively.
“He did a really good job not pushing and forcing things even though he knew he was on a minutes restriction,” Finch said. “I thought he did a really good job of just staying in the flow.”
Before the game, De’Aaron Fox said on the NBC broadcast that the Spurs were going to test Edwards’ knee and see how limited he was. Edwards was pushing himself, and pain and fatigue could have slowed him down in Game 1. It could have led him to settle for jump shots, shoot at a low percentage from the floor, and get blown by on defense.
However, by the fourth quarter, Edwards was moving so well and breaking San Antonio’s one-on-one defense with quick moves that the Spurs began doubling Ant and forcing the ball out of his hands.
“I made so many mistakes at the end of the game,” Edwards said on the NBC broadcast. “I am disappointed in myself. … 75% of the game for me is my mind. My mind has got to be where it needs to be, and in the last two minutes of the game, it wasn’t.”
Typically, when Edwards has a miraculous game, it comes with a clutch-time takeover. But in Game 1, he allowed Julian Champagnie to crash for two offensive rebounds and committed a turnover off an inbound.
Still, he scored 11 points in the fourth quarter on 5 of 7 shooting.
“It felt unreal,” Edwards said as he walked off the court. “My knee feels good. I still feel young. And I was so excited to be out there with the guys.”
Edwards was miraculous in Minnesota’s Game 1 win. He didn’t have his usual bounce. But he moved around the court with a healthy conviction much greater than most players would nine days after suffering the type of injury he did.
With Anthony Edwards back in the lineup, the Wolves stole home-court advantage against San Antonio. Competition is back in his bloodstream, and he is a threat to take and make those shots, even if he isn’t close to 100% healthy. He is a threat to hurl loud trash talk. And the Wolves are a legitimate threat in this series.
