Anthony Edwards put the basketball world on notice with his 43-point performance in Minnesota’s Game 1 win over Denver on Saturday.
With his third consecutive 35-point outing in these playoffs, the rising superstar joined Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, Kobe Bryant and LeBron James as one of four players in history to have three such games at the age of 22 or younger.
Edwards also joined Bryant as the only player 22 or under to register consecutive 40-point games in the postseason. “Ant-Man” had scored 40 in the Game 4 closeout win over the Suns last week.
Besides the many fans and analysts who were in awe of Edwards’ performance on Saturday, even his opponents, specifically Nikola Jokic, couldn’t help but marvel at his skillset. During the post-game presser, Jokic called the Timberwolves guard “a special player” who poses too many problems to his team.
“He’s a special player,” Jokic said of Edwards. “I have huge respect for him. He can do everything on the floor. I think you need to enjoy and respect your opponent … just how good and talented he is. It was him in the first half, he scored like 20-something in the first half. Then it was KAT and Mike Conley had some big points. Naz Reid had an amazing fourth quarter, and, of course, Ant had a big fourth quarter, too. They are a really talented team, that’s why they were the No. 1 seed for most of the year.”
Edwards was equally respectful to Jokic, calling him “the best player in the world” and the defending champions “the best team in the world” during his presser.
The mutual respect notwithstanding, there was a lot of chippiness and physicality between the two teams on Saturday, specifically between Aaron Gordon and Karl-Anthony Towns.
All signs point to the series going seven games. The Nuggets enter Monday’s Game 2 as -220 favorites to level up the series.
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