Draymond Green tipped his cap to Anthony Edwards after his third-quarter flurry helped the Minnesota Timberwolves take a 3-1 series lead and push the Golden State Warriors to the brink of elimination.
"There is no one. He is one of one," Green said after the Warriors' 117-110 Game 4 loss Monday. "With the increased volume ability that he's worked his tail off for, to be able to shoot the ball like that makes him a tough cover, for sure.
"But I think we also got to do a better job - his first ones can't be off an offensive rebound, kick-out threes. I think he's using some of them to get going the last couple games, so we got to do a better job there at taking those away. And if we don't get the rebound, you got to go into a scramble and not give up them open threes."
Edwards scored 16 of his 30 points in the third quarter. As Green referenced, the guard's first field goal of the second half was made possible by Rudy Gobert collecting an offensive board. Gobert tipped Mike Conley's missed floater back to him, then Conley dished it to an open Edwards at the 3-point line.
Edwards made 6-of-8 shots in the frame, including 3-of-5 from distance, giving Minnesota a 20-point lead entering the fourth after it trailed 60-58 at half.
The 23-year-old looked to lead by example after calling out his team's effort at halftime. The Timberwolves shot well in the first half but conceded 25 rebounds to Golden State while grabbing just 15 themselves.
"I told them, 'We only got two wins,'" Edwards said of his message, according to ESPN's Dave McMenamin. "I've never seen a series end 2-1.
"I told them we have to get two more wins and right now we're playing like we already got four wins. ... We had to figure it out because if we would have kept playing like that, we would have lost tonight."
Edwards is averaging 27.3 points, 7.8 rebounds, four assists, and two steals in the series on 46.4/41.2/70.8 shooting splits. He put up similar numbers against the Los Angeles Lakers in Round 1 - 26.8 points, 8.4 rebounds, 6.2 assists, and 1.2 steals - but shot just 42% from the floor and 33% from deep.
With Game 5 in Minnesota on Wednesday, the three-time All-Star has the chance to lead the Timberwolves to back-to-back conference finals for the first time in franchise history. Prior to last season's five-game series loss to the Dallas Mavericks, the only other time the Timberwolves competed for a spot in the Finals was 2004, when they fell to the Lakers in six games.
