Anthony Edwards said Thursday he doesn’t play basketball to pass the ball when defenses are focused on him. He showed that on Saturday.
The Minnesota Timberwolves star scored a career-high 53 points on Saturday, which represented the majority of his team’s total, in a 119-105 loss to the Detroit Pistons. Edwards also finished the game with two assists and six turnovers.
Edwards was also responsible for 16 of Minnesota’s 34 field goals and 31 of their 80 attempts.
It was a miserable game throughout for the Timberwolves, who leaned on Edwards even more than the final numbers suggest. At one point he had 43 of their 68 points and didn’t record his second assist until the final three minutes of the game. The Pistons led by double digits in the first few minutes of the second quarter and led by as many as 24 points in the third quarter.
The loss is a distillation of the problems the Timberwolves have faced since trading away Karl-Anthony Towns and betting big on Edwards as the first — and, frankly, second — option for their offense. The team’s record now stands at 17-17, while Edwards has publicly expressed his frustration with the number of double teams he is experiencing.
After a loss to the Boston Celtics on Thursday, Edwards said he didn’t enjoy having to pass out from double teams and was still trying to figure out what to do. He also made it very clear that he would rather not succeed:
“That’s a good brand of basketball, but obviously it’s not how I want to play. I’m only 23, I don’t want to just pass the ball all night long. … But the way they play guard me, I think I should do that.”
The Pistons may have listened.
