Anthony Edwards

Anthony Edwards Unwavered By Game 1 Loss

May 21st, 2025 at 10:52am CST by Dana Gauruder

The Thunder looked dominant as they pulled away from the Timberwolves in Game 1 of the Western Conference Finals on Tuesday. Minnesota’s star was unfazed by the 26-point loss, according to Dave McMenamin of ESPN.

Anthony Edwards just thinks he needs to be more assertive in order for the Timberwolves to turn things around.

“I definitely got to shoot more,” Edwards said. “I only took 13 (bleeping) 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.”

Edwards averaged 26.8 points and 6.2 assists while taking 22.4 shots per game against the Lakers in the opening round. In the conference semifinals against Golden State, he averaged 26.2 points and 5.6 assists on 21.8 shots per game.

In the conference finals opener, Edwards had 18 points, three assists and four turnovers and took only 13 shots in 37 minutes. All but one of his attempts came from outside the lane.

“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.”

Edwards and his teammates fired away from beyond the arc and shot mostly blanks, going 15-for-51 from long range.

“We had good looks, we just have to make shots,” guard Donte DiVincenzo said. “Myself, I have to make a couple shots and it loosens up the defense for Ant. It’s a domino effect.”

Edwards briefly left the game when he tweaked his right ankle in the first quarter but said that had nothing to do with his performance. “I feel great,” he said.

Northwest Notes: Wolves, Dort, Blazers, Jazz, Uzan

May 15th, 2025 at 10:54am CST by Luke Adams

After being eliminated in the Western Conference Finals in the spring of 2024, Anthony Edwards vowed the Timberwolves would be “back next year,” writes Jon Krawczynski of The Athletic.

That looked like a long shot for much of the season as Minnesota spent most of 2024/25 hovering around the seventh or eighth spot in the West. But the Wolves moved up to sixth on the last day of the regular season, dispatched the Lakers in round one, and – with Wednesday’s win over Golden State – made good on Edwards’ declaration, as well as responding to a challenge issued by head coach Chris Finch.

“The challenge we laid down to our guys from day one was quite simple,” Finch said after the Wolves’ Game 5 victory, per Dave McMenamin of ESPN. “It was one question: ‘Were you a Western Conference Finals team, or were you a team that just happened to make the Western Conference Finals?’ And there’s only one way to prove that: Go out and do it again. And that was our mission all year.”

While the Wolves have achieved one of their goals, they’re still two series wins away from their ultimate objective, which is why Edwards told reporters on Wednesday that there’s “no satisfaction” in the locker room yet, according to McMenamin. Minnesota would enter the 2025 Western Finals as a significant underdog if the 68-win Thunder get past Denver in the other conference semifinal, but the Wolves players say they’re not fazed by that.

“Our mentality going in was nobody expected us to beat the Lakers, no one expected us to beat the Warriors,” Donte DiVincenzo said. “So our expectation going in was just stick together and we know that no one is going to pick us, and we’re fine with that.”

We have more from around the Northwest:

After not playing in the fourth quarter of the Thunder‘s Game 4 win and scoring just three points in the first three quarters of Game 5, veteran wing Luguentz Dort keyed Oklahoma City’s Tuesday comeback with a trio of consecutive three-pointers in the fourth quarter, writes Joe Mussatto of The Oklahoman. Head coach Mark Daigneault had reaffirmed his faith in Dort after Game 4, referring to him as “the last guy I’m worried about,” and wasn’t surprised by his Game 5 heroics. “I don’t bet against Lu,” Daigneault said. “It’s that simple.”
It’s business as usual for the Trail Blazers‘ front office with the franchise up for sale, reports Aaron Fentress of The Oregonian. A source tells Fentress that general manager Joe Cronin is operating with no additional restrictions during the sale process. As Fentress writes, while it’s not uncommon for a new ownership group to make managerial and coaching changes, both Cronin and head coach Chauncey Billups recently signed contract extensions, so they at least have some financial security going forward.
Milos Uzan worked out for the Jazz last week and said he got some “pretty good feedback” from the team, according to Andy Larsen of The Salt Lake Tribune, who notes that Carlos Boozer – rumored to be joining Utah as a scout – referred to Uzan as “one of the better players in the workout.” The Houston guard is the 41st overall prospect on ESPN’s big board, while the Jazz control three picks (Nos. 21, 43, and 53) in addition to their lottery selection.

Northwest Notes: Edwards, Westbrook, Jazz, Blazers

May 13th, 2025 at 6:20pm CST by Luke Adams

With the Timberwolves trailing Golden State at halftime in Game 4 on Monday, a locker-room speech from Anthony Edwards helped spark a huge third-quarter turnaround, writes Dave McMenamin of ESPN.

“I told them, ‘We only got two wins,'” Edwards told reporters after Minnesota’s Game 4 win. “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 made good on his halftime speech by coming out and scoring 16 points on 6-of-8 shooting in the third quarter. The Timberwolves as a whole outscored the Warriors 39-17, making it the largest positive margin in a single quarter in Wolves playoff history, per McMenamin.

As Jon Krawczynski of The Athletic writes, the Timberwolves will need to remain cognizant of Edwards’ message and avoid getting complacent going forward in order to finish off the series. After building a big lead in the third quarter on Monday, they saw that lead whittled down to seven points in the fourth before putting the game way. As they head home for Game 5, guard Nickeil Alexander-Walker spoke about a need to “understand the moment.”

“Have to be present and understand that these are situations that are pivotal,” he said. “You have a chance to close out on your home court as opposed to having to go elsewhere and try to win and then do it again and come back on the road and travel.”

Here’s more from around the Northwest:

The Nuggets had been interested in Russell Westbrook for years before signing him last summer, believing that his energy and competitiveness would be a welcome addition to the roster, writes Ramona Shelburne of ESPN. However, the veteran guard remains a volatile personality who reportedly pouted after being taken out near the end of a first-round loss and got into a heated discussion with Aaron Gordon in the locker room after being challenged over his attitude, sources tell ESPN. According to Shelburne, the Nuggets’ chances of advancing in the playoffs and having a shot at another title could come down to which version of Westbrook they get going forward.
Even though there was nearly a 50/50 chance that the Jazz would end up at No. 5 in the draft, that outcome was still a gut-punch for fans in Utah on the heels of a 17-win season. Tony Jones of The Athletic weighs what’s next for the Jazz after a disappointing lottery night, suggesting that the team should still land a promising young building block at No. 5. But since that player likely won’t make an immediate impact on winning as a rookie, Utah could be back in this position in 2026, hoping for better lottery luck.
Keith Smith of Spotrac previews the coming offseason in Portland, evaluating the Trail Blazers‘ top trade candidates and considering what a rookie scale extension might look like for Shaedon Sharpe (Smith projects $112MM over four years).

Wolves Notes: Edwards, Conley, Alexander-Walker, Randle

May 10th, 2025 at 7:28pm CST by Arthur Hill

Timberwolves star Anthony Edwards appears to have fully overcome the injury scare he suffered in Game 2, according to Dave McMenamin of ESPN (Twitter link). Edwards had to leave the game in the second quarter after reinjuring his left ankle, but he was able to return after halftime.

Meeting with reporters before tonight’s contest, Minnesota coach Chris Finch said Edwards will be “hopefully as close to full go as you can be,” McMenamin relays. Finch added that Edwards participated in Friday’s workout and didn’t show any “ill effects” from the injury.

There were fears that Edwards could be lost for the series or possibly longer when Golden State big man Trayce Jackson-Davis accidentally landed on his leg on a play under the basket, per Vincent Goodwill of Yahoo Sports. Two team staff members helped Edwards up, but he wasn’t able to put any weight on the ankle as they assisted him to the locker room.

“This one I was really worried about, actually,” Finch admitted after the game. “There’s lots of ways being an elite athlete pay off, being able to shake those things off is one of them.”

There’s more on the Timberwolves:

Oklahoma City, Cleveland and Boston posted the league’s best records during the regular season, but they’re all trailing in the second round, which has the Wolves believing the race for the NBA title is wide open, Goodwill adds in the same piece. “The message I’ve gathered from watching the league over the last week: This thing is anybody’s for that taking, you know,” Mike Conley said. “Why not us? Why not? Why can’t we do it? My urgency is at an all-time high. These guys are urgent. Just make them understand you don’t get this chance too often. I’m on my last couple of runs. I want them to feel that.”
Nickeil Alexander-Walker was able to break out of his shooting slump in Game 2 by focusing on things other than scoring, writes Alec Lewis of The Athletic. Alexander-Walker prioritized rebounding, defense and playing with pace — all of which helped him earn a rotation role in Minnesota — and would up setting a personal career playoff high with 20 points.
Julius Randle was the Wolves’ best player in Game 2 with 24 points, seven rebounds and 11 assists, but he was benched for a while in the third quarter for an emotional outburst that led to a defensive lapse, per La Velle E. Neal III of The Star-Tribune. Randle was upset that an official ruled that the ball went out of bounds off him, resulting in a turnover, and Jonathan Kuminga threw down a breakaway dunk while he was reacting. “You know me, being a competitor,” Randle said. “I wanted to stay out there, you know? Kind of ride the ship. But, you know, it didn’t necessarily go like that. I was a little hot.”

Wolves Notes: Edwards, Conley, Gobert, Fan Ejection, Dillingham

May 9th, 2025 at 8:08pm CST by Eli Cohen

After being upset by the Warriors at home in Game 1, Anthony Edwards and the Timberwolves won Game 2 by a margin of 117-93. For the Wolves, who led the game from start to finish, the biggest scare of the night came when Edwards had to leave the game in the second quarter after re-injuring the left ankle that he had previously hurt in Game 4 of the first round.

The injury occurred when Warriors big man Trayce Jackson-Davis stepped on Edwards’ ankle after meeting him at the rim for a block. Head coach Chris Finch immediately feared the worst.

“This one, I was really planning on not seeing him the rest of the game, to be honest with you,” Finch said, according to ESPN’s Dave McMenamin.

The Wolves managed to hold off the Warriors, who were missing their own star in Stephen Curry after he left Game 1 with a Grade 1 hamstring strain, for the rest of the half while Edwards got worked on in the locker room.

“Once we got to like the third movement in my ankle, I’m like, ‘All right, it’s starting to feel good. If we tape it, I’ll see how it feels,'” Edwards said. “[Wolves VP of medical operations and performance David Hines] does a great job of making sure I’m good before I get out there, so big shoutout to David.”

Edwards was able to return to the game in the second half and lead the Wolves to their commanding victory in a game he called “the biggest game of our career.” Afterward, he told reporters he planned on being good to go for the crucial Game 3 in Golden State — he’s not listed on the injury report for Saturday’s contest.

Here’s more on the Wolves:

Mike Conley is known for his stoic floor generalship, but in Game 2 of the series against the Warriors, he made a point to set a tone, both in terms of defense and demonstrativeness. “I just wanted to really show the guys I’m going to do whatever I can for the team, sacrifice,” Conley said, per The Athletic’s Jon Krawczynski. “That’s all I was focused on for the majority of the game. I know our guys kind of fed off the energy I was bringing.” The Wolves, led by Edwards and Julius Randle, are a team built on defense, trash talk, and a chip that never leaves their shoulder. With Minnesota 1-0 heading into the game, Conley focused on channeling that energy to bring out the best in the team. For at least one game, the strategy worked.
Timberwolves coach Chris Finch took umbrage with the level of physicality in Game 1 of Minnesota’s second-round series with the Warriors, particularly when it came to the contact Golden State was able to inflict on star big man Rudy Gobert. Despite a relatively similar number of overall fouls called (Minnesota had 21 to Golden State’s 18), Finch wasn’t satisfied. “We sent a bunch of those clips into the league. In fact, I’m not sure I know another player in the league with Rudy’s pedigree that is allowed to be physically beaten on the way he is. And so, we’ve got to address that one way or another,” Finch said, according to McMenamin. He wasn’t the only one frustrated, as Warriors coach Steve Kerr had his own litany of complaints, especially in regards to how Curry was guarded before getting injured. If Game 2 of the series is any indication, the clips sent in didn’t have much of an impact, as the Wolves were called for 22 fouls that led to 25 Warriors free throws, while the Warriors were called for 16 fouls that led to 20 Wolves free throws.
Game 2 also saw a Minnesota fan ejected from the game, and another one leave voluntarily before they could be ejected. In a press release (via Twitter), the Timberwolves cited the fan “… Violating the NBA Fan Code of Conduct in an incident involving Draymond Green.” The second fan was alleged to have made racially charged comments at Green, though Wolves reporter Chris Hine reported (via Twitter) that the first fan may have been the one to use that language. Kerr thanked the Wolves organization for how they dealt with the unfortunate situation. “The Wolves handled that beautifully and Draymond is handling it well,” he said.
Rookie point guard Rob Dillingham has been upgraded to questionable for Game 3, per Timberwolves PR (via Twitter). Dillingham has missed the previous eight games with a right ankle sprain. The 20-year-old scoring guard was only averaging 3.8 minutes from the beginning of March onward, so he may not play even if he’s active.

Timberwolves Coach Chris Finch Criticizes Anthony Edwards

May 7th, 2025 at 10:49am CST by Dana Gauruder

Timberwolves coach Chris Finch called out his star player after Minnesota’s 99-88 loss to the Warriors on Tuesday night.

Finch was clearly irked by what he felt was a lackluster performance from Anthony Edwards.

“What is there to talk about? You’re the leader of the team,” Finch said, per Dave McMenamin of ESPN. “You’ve got to come out and set the tone. If your shot is not going, you still have to carry the energy. If I’ve got to talk to guys about having the right energy coming into an opening second-round game, then we’re not on the same page.”

Edwards didn’t make a field goal in the first half as Minnesota was held to 31 first-half points. He finished with 23 points on 9-for-23 shooting as the Timberwolves failed to take advantage of Stephen Curry‘s hamstring injury.

“It starts with Ant,” Finch said. “I thought he struggled, and then you could just kind of see the light go out a little bit for a while.”

In an era when two coaches on playoff-bound teams were fired late in the regular season, it’s unusual for a head coach to criticize one of the league’s stars that strongly. However, Finch has plenty of financial security. He signed a four-year extension last summer that carries through the 2027/28 season.

Edwards didn’t strike back at Finch’s comments, seemingly offering a diplomatic response.

“People are going to try to blame whatever, blame whoever; they can blame me,” Edwards said. “[But] we just didn’t play good enough.

“… Tonight, we didn’t shoot the ball well, but tonight is over. So, next game we’ll shoot the ball really well.”

Finch was upset in general with Minnesota’s offensive decision-making, feeling the team didn’t take advantage of Golden State’s 18 turnovers.

“Our transition decision-making was diabolical,” Finch said. “Obviously, we couldn’t hit a shot, but I didn’t like the fact that we couldn’t repeatedly generate good shots. We should’ve been able to.”

Warriors Notes: Curry, Reserves, Butler, Hield, 2020 Draft

May 7th, 2025 at 8:01am CST by Dana Gauruder

The Warriors‘ 99-88 Game 1 victory over the Timberwolves on Tuesday came at a big cost. Stephen Curry suffered a left hamstring strain in the second quarter and missed the second half.

“He’s obviously crushed,” coach Steve Kerr said, per Ohm Youngmisuk of ESPN. “But the guys picked him up and played a great game, and obviously we’re all concerned about Steph but it’s part of the game.”

Kerr doubts Curry, who will undergo an MRI today, can play in Game 2. Curry limped out of the arena and didn’t speak to the media.

“We don’t know yet,” Kerr said. “But with a hamstring, it’s hard to imagine that he would play Thursday.”

Forward Draymond Green is optimistic the team can hold its own until Curry returns, especially with another proven playoff performer in Jimmy Butler.

“Jimmy’s capable of carrying a team. He carried a team to the Finals twice. So we won’t panic,” Green said. “We will figure out what that means. We have the best coaching staff in the NBA. We know they’ll put us in a good spot and let us know what our offense looks like without Steph if we have to go on without him. We got full confidence in the guys that are on this team that we can make plays, can make shots.”

We have more on the Warriors:

Bench contributions from Pat Spencer, Gary Payton II and Kevon Looney helped the Warriors to overcome Curry’s absence, Anthony Slater of The Athletic writes. Thrust into backup point guard duties, Spencer had two steals, two rebounds and a pair of key baskets. Payton, sidelined in Game 7 of the first round by an illness, played a bench-high 26 minutes and supplied four assists, five rebounds and eight points. Looney secured two late offensive rebounds.
Butler and Buddy Hield dragged the Warriors to the finish line offensively. Butler finished with 20 points, 11 rebounds, eight assists and two steals, while Hield scored all but two of his 24 points after halftime. “I’m Batman today,” Hield quipped. “I saved the day.” Hield is in the first year of a four-year, $37.8MM contract.
The Timberwolves and Warriors had the top two picks in the 2020 draft — Minnesota got a star in Anthony Edwards, Golden State swung and missed with James Wiseman. Slater offers details on the developments leading up to that draft, reporting that the Warriors had conversations about trading out, trading back and even the trading up for Minnesota’s selection before ultimately deciding to retain the No. 2 pick.

Northwest Notes: Reid, Edwards, Caruso, Blazers

April 30th, 2025 at 3:15pm CST by Luke Adams

After winning the NBA’s Sixth Man of the Year award last season, Timberwolves big man Naz Reid placed fifth in 2024/25, earning just a single first-place vote. But he played a similar role in Minnesota this season, establishing new career highs in points (14.2), rebounds (6.0), and assists (2.3) per game.

As Jon Krawczynski of The Athletic writes, Reid has continued to prove his importance to the team during the first round of the playoffs. In Minnesota’s three victories, the big man has compiled 46 points on 16-of-26 shooting (61.5%) and the Wolves have outscored the Lakers by 32 points during his 78 minutes on the court. Perhaps most importantly, Reid has made 9-of-10 shots from the floor, including 6-of-6 three-pointers, in fourth quarters during the series.

“(Head coach Chris Finch) has kind of had that faith in me throughout the whole year,” Reid said after making a handful of big shots to help the Wolves clinch a Game 4 win. “I’ve kind of grown to be a player that you can kind of count on.”

A strong postseason could be a financial boon for Reid, who holds a $15MM player option for 2025/26 and could turn it down in order to sign a more lucrative longer-term contract.

We have more from around the Northwest:

Although Anthony Edwards has shown little interest in the idea of becoming the eventual face of the NBA, Krawczynski argues in a separate story for The Athletic that the Timberwolves star may have little choice in the matter if he keeps submitting playoff performances against superstar opponents like he has against LeBron James and Luka Doncic in round one. In Game 4, Edwards scored 16 of his 43 points in the fourth quarter to help Minnesota secure a comeback victory and take a 3-1 lead in the series.
In a conversation with Darnell Mayberry of The Athletic, Thunder guard Alex Caruso discussed what impresses him about the organization, what makes Shai Gilgeous-Alexander unique, and the message he has delivered to his teammates about what it takes to win a championship. Caruso was part of the Lakers team that won a title in 2020. “It’s the hardest thing I’ve ever done in sports,” Caruso said. “It just takes so many different things to go right and so many different players and coaches to have input and dictate the game. It isn’t something that’s easy. That’s the thing I’m trying to get to. I try to tell the guys, ‘This is going to be the hardest thing you’ll ever do in sports.'”
In a series of mailbag articles for his Rose Garden Report Substack, Sean Highkin tackles questions about whether the Trail Blazers‘ retooling timeline has accelerated, which players most need to be traded this offseason, and what the future holds for Anfernee Simons. Highkin believes Portland needs to find a way to move on from Jerami Grant this summer, given the emergence of forwards Deni Avdija and Toumani Camara, but doesn’t necessarily view Simons as a safe bet to be moved.

Super-Max/Rose Rule Candidates To Watch After Mobley Cashed In

April 25th, 2025 at 8:49pm CST by Luke Adams

As we detailed on Thursday within our story about Evan Mobley earning Defensive Player of the Year honors, the award represented a major financial boon for the Cavaliers big man, who significantly increased the value of his contract extension by virtue of being named this season’s Defensive Player of the Year.

Mobley signed a five-year, maximum-salary rookie scale extension last summer that included Rose Rule language. The Rose Rule allows a player and team to negotiate a maximum salary worth up to 30% of the cap (instead of the usual 25%) for a player with just four years of NBA experience if he makes an All-NBA team or wins the MVP or DPOY award.

Interestingly, Mobley’s rookie scale extension would’ve started at 27.5% of the cap in 2025/26 if he had made the All-NBA third team (instead of one of the first two teams) and hadn’t won Defensive Player of the Year.

Now that he has received DPOY recognition, it will instead start at 30%.

Here are the three scenarios that had been in play for Mobley, based on a projected 10% cap increase:

Year	25% of cap	27.5% of cap	30% of cap
2025/26	$38,661,750	$42,527,925	$46,394,100
2026/27	$41,754,690	$45,930,159	$50,105,628
2027/28	$44,847,630	$49,332,393	$53,817,156
2028/29	$47,940,570	$52,734,627	$57,528,684
2029/30	$51,033,510	$56,136,861	$61,240,212
Total	$224,238,150	$246,661,965	$269,085,780

Mobley cashed in with his DPOY win, locking in a contract that projects to be worth in excess of $269MM over the next five seasons. Are there any other players who could join him by earning All-NBA nods this spring?

There’s only really one other guy who entered award season in the same boat as Mobley, waiting to see if his rookie scale extension worth 25% of the cap will increase to 30% of the cap. That player is Pistons point guard Cade Cunningham.

Cunningham looks like a pretty safe bet to be included on one of the All-NBA teams for 2024/25, and unlike Mobley, his contract doesn’t include any variable rates between 25% and 30% depending on which All-NBA team he makes. If Cunningham is a third-teamer, that would still be enough to bump his ’25/26 salary to 30% of the cap, matching Mobley’s deal.

Two other players signed Rose Rule extensions last offseason, but Magic forward Franz Wagner didn’t appear in enough games to qualify for All-NBA consideration and Raptors forward Scottie Barnes isn’t a serious candidate for the honor — their new contracts will start at 25% of next season’s cap.

There’s one other player to watch for potential super-max candidacy though — Grizzlies big man Jaren Jackson Jr. would become eligible for a super-max (ie. “designated veteran“) contract extension worth up to 35% of the cap if he’s one of this season’s 15 All-NBA players. He looks like a solid bet to make the cut after serving as Memphis’ most reliable offensive weapon and earning DPOY votes.

If Jackson earns an All-NBA spot, the Grizzlies would have three options when they enter extension talks with him this offseason:

They could offer him a raise of up to 40% off his current contract, but that likely wouldn’t be enough to get a deal done, since his salary in the final year of his current deal in 2025/26 is just $23.4MM, a relatively modest figure for an All-NBA caliber player.
They could use cap room to renegotiate his ’25/26 salary in order to give him a raise and then extend him off of that figure. This is a legitimate option, given that the Grizzlies are in position to potentially carve out a little cap room.
They could sign him to a super-max extension that starts anywhere between 30% and 35% of the cap. Although it’s typical for players who sign super-max deals to get the full 35%, a team doesn’t necessarily need to go that high — when Utah extended Rudy Gobert after he became super-max eligible with a Defensive Player of the Year win, for instance, his deal started at a little over 31% of the cap.

Thunder guard Shai Gilgeous-Alexander will also be eligible to sign a super-max contract extension this offseason — that would still be the case even if he doesn’t win this season’s MVP award or make an All-NBA team (he’ll almost certainly do both), since he achieved the performance criteria a year ago.

The Rose Rule and super-max performance criteria call for a player to earn All-NBA, MVP, or DPOY recognition in either the preceding season or in two of the three preceding seasons, so Gilgeous-Alexander got there by making All-NBA teams in 2023 and 2024, even though he wouldn’t have enough years of service to sign his new deal until 2025.

No other stars are in position to meet that two-in-three-years criteria early this spring, like Gilgeous-Alexander did last year.

A player like Timberwolves guard Anthony Edwards, for example, is on track to make his second straight All-NBA team, but won’t meet the years-of-service criteria for a super-max extension until 2027. That means that even if he earns an All-NBA spot this year, Edwards will have to do so again in either 2026 or 2027 to be eligible to sign that deal in ’27, since the 2024 nod won’t be counted within the preceding three seasons at that time.

We’re likely still a few weeks away from learning this year’s full All-NBA results. A year ago, the league announced those teams on May 22.

Lakers Notes: Game 2, Redick, Hachimura, Offense, Defense

April 24th, 2025 at 4:15pm CST by Rory Maher

The Lakers evened their first-round series with Minnesota at one game apiece on Tuesday evening, writes Dave McMenamin of ESPN. Head coach JJ Redick called a timeout to tear into his team after Los Angeles’ lead was cut from 22 points to 11 in the third quarter, and the Lakers responded with a 9-0 run to regain control of Game 2.

“That’s JJ,” LeBron James said of the first-year coach’s outburst. “Obviously we need to listen to the message and not how he’s delivering it. … I thought we responded after that.”

Redick was particularly complimentary of Rui Hachimura, who remained aggressive despite having to exit the game in the first quarter after being hit in the face.

“He played like a warrior tonight,” Redick said of Hachimura. “I’m sure that he is probably in the X-ray room right now. There were a few plays that he made just getting deflections and disrupting plays. … He was awesome.”

Hachimura will wear a protective mask for a “little bit” for precautionary reasons, but imaging was negative, Redick said today (Twitter link via McMenamin).

Here’s more on the Lakers:

While Redick was pleased with the team’s defensive effort in Game 2, he said Thursday that the offense has plenty of room for improvement heading into Game 3, per Khobi Price of The Southern California News Group. The Lakers have averaged just 94.5 points in the first two games of the series. “We were more organized (compared to Game 1),” Redick said. “But the biggest thing for us is we have to find ways to create a little bit more thrust and pace. That’s probably the biggest thing. And we’ll continue to fine-tune that.”
Timberwolves star Anthony Edwards admitted he has been confused by the Lakers’ defensive strategy, according to Price. “I don’t know – it seemed like every time I caught the ball, [the Lakers] kind of went into a zone in a sense,” Edwards responded when asked about Minnesota’s lack of ball and player movement in Game 2. “It was kind of confusing at times, but we’ll watch film and be ready.” Edwards had 25 points in Game 2, but he attempted 22 shots and had zero assists and two turnovers after finishing with nine assists and one turnover in Game 1.
Edwards was flummoxed, but star guard Luka Doncic said the Lakers didn’t actually alter their defensive approach between games, Price adds. “We did the same game plan,” said Doncic, who finished with game highs of 31 points, 12 rebounds and nine assists in 42 minutes. “We didn’t really change much. It was just a question of if we were gonna be more physical or not. And we were for 48 minutes. We learned from the last game. And we just stuck to it.”

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