Anthony Edwards and the Minnesota Timberwolves moved to the Western Conference Finals on Sunday evening with a 20-point comeback victory over Nikola Jokic and the reigning champion Denver Nuggets in Game 7 of their conference semifinal series.
The Nuggets controlled this one for the first two and a half quarters before the Timberwolves’ late third-quarter surge quickly got them back in the game, and despite Edwards’ poor shooting night from the field (25%), he received enough help from his Minnesota teammates to propel his team to their first NBA Final Four in twenty years.
Toward the end of the game, one viral moment came when Edwards was seen saying goodbye to the Denver fans as he dribbled out the shot clock (before handing it to teammate Jaden McDaniels, who inexplicably tried a slam despite the Nuggets’ apparent defeat).
After the game, TNT cameras caught Edwards and Jokic having a heated conversation that did not look to be particularly amicable. Now, newly leaked audio has revealed exactly what happened during the encounter.
“Why, why?” remarked Jokic, according to LegendZ on X, the social media platform formerly known as Twitter.
“Why what?” responded Edwards. “Why did you wave at the crowd,” the Joker wondered.
Edwards’ response to that question was to simply point to the scoreboard, which showed the Timberwolves within seconds of reaching the conference finals for the first time since Kevin Garnett did so exactly twenty years ago on Sunday.
A shocking run
While the Timberwolves were regarded as a talented team, the prevailing impression heading into the season was that they were a group that was less than the sum of its parts, an odd combination of skill that did not always gel.
However, none of that has been visible thus far in this playoff run, as the Timberwolves first eliminated Kevin Durant and the Phoenix Suns before defeating Jokic and the Nuggets in one of the most thrilling series in recent NBA history.
While Edwards may be the snake’s head, he does have a little All-Star squad in his teammates, as Jokic recognized following the Game 7 loss. “From the bench, they have a Sixth Man of the Year.” [They are] one squad that can accomplish absolutely anything.
“They can be big or small,” Jokic told Ohm Youngmisuk of ESPN. The Timberwolves will now face the Dallas Mavericks in the Western Conference Finals, with a trip to the Finals on the line, with the winner most likely facing the Boston Celtics in that round unless one of the most shocking upsets in NBA history occurs on the opposite side of the bracket.
In that matchup, Edwards must be more efficient than he was in the Nuggets series, and his supporting cast must continue to knock down open shots as a result of Edwards’ defensive focus.
