Latest / Bleacher Report / Wolves Won in 5 Anthony Edwards Talks Eliminating the Lakers _ 2025 NBA Playoffs

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Wolves Won in 5 Anthony Edwards Talks Eliminating the Lakers _ 2025 NBA Playoffs · Bleacher Report

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: Alrighty, congrats on the win. So what does this series
• 0:04
  Speaker 1: win mean to you both personally?
• 0:08
  Speaker 2: M I wanna go what happened?
• 0:12
  Speaker 1: What does the series win mean to you personally?
• 0:15
  Speaker 3: Uh?
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  Speaker 4: Means a lot.
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  Speaker 5: I mean.
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  Speaker 6: We do the best player in the world.
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  Speaker 5: I don't like the best way ever, So how you
• 0:24
  Speaker 5: feel feel good? Just gonna start, but you know I
• 0:28
  Speaker 5: feel good about it well, especially the the way we
• 0:31
  Speaker 5: want like we without it going. That's kind of it
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  Speaker 5: shows that, you know, we got a lot of character.
• 0:38
  Speaker 4: In a lock grow.
• 0:39
  Speaker 1: Yeah. I know you said your daughter has been a
• 0:41
  Speaker 1: big motivation for you and it's a huge responsibility as
• 0:45
  Speaker 1: well as the playoffs. How has that experience been for you?
• 0:51
  Speaker 2: It's been fun but hard cause I'll be leaving for
• 0:53
  Speaker 2: like four or five days, so she get the tripping
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  Speaker 2: on her mom.
• 0:56
  Speaker 7: But other than that, it's been fun.
• 0:58
  Speaker 8: Okay, and back here.
• 1:04
  Speaker 2: You've talked in the past about how much you all
• 1:06
  Speaker 2: need from Rudy, and tonight it seemed like it embodied
• 1:10
  Speaker 2: the type of game that you were talking about from him.
• 1:13
  Speaker 4: What did you see, how did he help you?
• 1:14
  Speaker 5: And what can this team be when he plays like this?
• 1:19
  Speaker 7: Uh?
• 1:20
  Speaker 2: Yeah, Uh, Rudy played phenomenal man. He played almost forty
• 1:28
  Speaker 2: minutes tonight, twelve or fifteen from the field. Yeah, we
• 1:31
  Speaker 2: can't ask nothing at twenty four rebounds. He was a
• 1:35
  Speaker 2: dragon tonight.
• 1:37
  Speaker 7: Rudy was the dragon.
• 1:40
  Speaker 2: Yeah, he was a dragon to night for sure. Yeah,
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  Speaker 2: for sure. Now he wasn't a dragon for Art. He
• 1:45
  Speaker 2: was a dragon from dam Yeah, he was incredible tonight.
• 1:49
  Speaker 9: To answer your question, And before the playoffs started right
• 1:53
  Speaker 9: here in right here, had you mentioned to me that
• 1:57
  Speaker 9: you wanted everybody to be talking about the Lakers. You
• 1:59
  Speaker 9: saw everybody picking the Lakers. How does it feel now
• 2:02
  Speaker 9: to emerge from this series victorious the way that you
• 2:04
  Speaker 9: guys had, the way you did, and to prove those
• 2:07
  Speaker 9: kind of people wrong.
• 2:09
  Speaker 1: Uh.
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  Speaker 2: You know what makes it feel even better is that
• 2:12
  Speaker 2: they said Lakers in five and the Wolves won in five.
• 2:15
  Speaker 2: So I think that makes it feel ten times better.
• 2:18
  Speaker 2: That's like Marmoni answer. You can.
• 2:21
  Speaker 5: Question.
• 2:22
  Speaker 2: They can't hear me.
• 2:24
  Speaker 7: Who came?
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  Speaker 10: He don't care about the TV?
• 2:32
  Speaker 11: And after Game four you said this is a team
• 2:35
  Speaker 11: that could talk to each other. And I remember back
• 2:37
  Speaker 11: in November you you were sitting in your life after
• 2:40
  Speaker 11: loss to the King, saying this team couldn't communicate with
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  Speaker 11: each other. When at what point of this season did
• 2:45
  Speaker 11: that flip for this team and how did you guys
• 2:47
  Speaker 11: become closer as a team. Maybe what moment did that
• 2:50
  Speaker 11: happen for you guys throughout the course of the season.
• 2:52
  Speaker 2: I think the turning point for us was the game
• 2:54
  Speaker 2: when Julius came back in Phoenix. I think that changed
• 2:57
  Speaker 2: everything we knew we needed. We was missing them and
• 3:01
  Speaker 2: we was just missing at that piece. Did it don't
• 3:03
  Speaker 2: take them make that game too or at the same time, Yeah,
• 3:07
  Speaker 2: So when they came back, it it kind of changed everything,
• 3:10
  Speaker 2: like a whole demeanor change cause we had like a
• 3:12
  Speaker 2: we had like a team meeting with FINCHI and the coaches,
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  Speaker 2: and like they got on us, and they feel like
• 3:17
  Speaker 2: everybody responded the right way, Like, uh, everybody went and
• 3:20
  Speaker 2: looked in the mirror and said, you know, it's a
• 3:22
  Speaker 2: lot of things that I can do better for myself
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  Speaker 2: to help the team instead of trying to blame somebody.
• 3:26
  Speaker 2: So we did that and everybody became like a grown man.
• 3:30
  Speaker 3: In a sense.
• 3:33
  Speaker 10: At right here, I got of the guys up here
• 3:37
  Speaker 10: three Uh, your three balls just wasn't falling tonight. How frustrating.
• 3:41
  Speaker 10: Was that for you? And when did you kind of
• 3:43
  Speaker 10: make the decision that you was just gonna try to
• 3:44
  Speaker 10: put the ball on the floor.
• 3:47
  Speaker 2: I didn't really make a decision to stop shooting it.
• 3:50
  Speaker 2: I still trusted it. It just didn't fall. But my
• 3:53
  Speaker 2: teammates did a great job of I'm not Julius did
• 3:56
  Speaker 2: a great job of calling for the ball down the streets,
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  Speaker 2: cause I woulda kept trying to force it, trying to
• 3:59
  Speaker 2: find something, but Julius had it going and you know,
• 4:03
  Speaker 2: like I said, with a team, so just get him
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  Speaker 2: involved and let him go to work, realizing that he
• 4:07
  Speaker 2: got the match up that we're looking for.
• 4:10
  Speaker 6: Julius. This is obviously your first season with UH, with
• 4:13
  Speaker 6: Rudy Gobert. I'm curious kind of over the course of
• 4:16
  Speaker 6: the year sort of your perception of being like I'm
• 4:18
  Speaker 6: gonna start in his front courp with with Rudy, what
• 4:22
  Speaker 6: your perception of him was kind of coming in and
• 4:24
  Speaker 6: how that how this would work and into kind of
• 4:27
  Speaker 6: over the course of the season, what it's been, and
• 4:29
  Speaker 6: then what he did tonight.
• 4:31
  Speaker 7: I just knew he was like dominating the paint, and
• 4:33
  Speaker 7: you know, he protected the room. You know, I've had
• 4:37
  Speaker 7: my battles with Rudy over the years, so you know,
• 4:39
  Speaker 7: I knew who he was as a player, but obviously
• 4:43
  Speaker 7: when you you play with somebody consistently, it's it's a
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  Speaker 7: little bit different. So you know, over the course of
• 4:47
  Speaker 7: the year, I really had to learn, you know, his
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  Speaker 7: strengths and you know, how to help him in a sense,
• 4:54
  Speaker 7: you know, because when he plays at a high level,
• 4:56
  Speaker 7: same thing with Jadeen, the same thing with nas like
• 4:58
  Speaker 7: we can go down the line. When they play at
• 5:00
  Speaker 7: a high level, just takes our team to a whole different,
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  Speaker 7: you know, dimension, and it makes us super dynamic. So, uh,
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  Speaker 7: just learning rude through through the course of the year
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  Speaker 7: and how to communicate with them, all those different type
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  Speaker 7: of things. You know, it was a process. But when
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  Speaker 7: he does what he does tonight, you know, you see
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  Speaker 7: how good we can be as a team.
• 5:18
  Speaker 12: First off, congratulations though a three you gentlemen on the
• 5:20
  Speaker 12: serious win today.
• 5:21
  Speaker 7: Julius.
• 5:22
  Speaker 12: For you, there was a point in this series where
• 5:24
  Speaker 12: I see you you pretty much can get where you
• 5:26
  Speaker 12: wanted to get when you wanted to get there. First
• 5:28
  Speaker 12: part of the question, when did that come about in
• 5:31
  Speaker 12: the game? And second part, did you see anything that
• 5:33
  Speaker 12: they were trying to do schematically to try to take
• 5:36
  Speaker 12: the ball out of your hand, or did you see
• 5:37
  Speaker 12: them wanting to go one on one and you're just
• 5:39
  Speaker 12: tunnel vision at that point, scoring how you want to
• 5:41
  Speaker 12: score and who you want to score on.
• 5:43
  Speaker 7: Yeah, I mean when we started the series in the beginning,
• 5:46
  Speaker 7: we kind of knew, you know, their defense and you know,
• 5:49
  Speaker 7: scheme wise, how they like to play. So I mean
• 5:51
  Speaker 7: it developed over the course of the series. But like, honestly,
• 5:54
  Speaker 7: like when you play next to five, like it make
• 5:58
  Speaker 7: the game a lot easier, you know what I mean,
• 6:00
  Speaker 7: because they throwing two or three people at him, so
• 6:01
  Speaker 7: you just got to be you know, willing to move
• 6:04
  Speaker 7: and being the right spaces on the floor and you know,
• 6:06
  Speaker 7: you got to be able to take advantage of that.
• 6:08
  Speaker 7: So I mean, it's not not a person in the
• 6:10
  Speaker 7: world that can guard him one on one. So it's
• 6:12
  Speaker 7: you know, teams are throwing everything at him, and you
• 6:14
  Speaker 7: know I always tell him, go be great, but you know,
• 6:16
  Speaker 7: if you need me, I'm right there for him. So uh,
• 6:18
  Speaker 7: you know, I just try to make the game easy
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  Speaker 7: on him by you know, attacking and putting pressure.
• 6:23
  Speaker 8: First questions for for nas, I got to give you
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  Speaker 8: an a on the group project, bro, because you made
• 6:27
  Speaker 8: some big shots this whole series.
• 6:29
  Speaker 5: Bro.
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  Speaker 8: But just you know, going in with that with Coach
• 6:32
  Speaker 8: Finch and his trust with you. We were looking at
• 6:35
  Speaker 8: some film with Kyrie and he was saying how you
• 6:38
  Speaker 8: and Ant would be on same side and you'll be
• 6:40
  Speaker 8: on your left side, and you know, just Fincher's just
• 6:43
  Speaker 8: putting you in the right spots and making sure you
• 6:45
  Speaker 8: were shining through and running place to you to make
• 6:48
  Speaker 8: big shots. How would you feel in that situation where
• 6:50
  Speaker 8: you and his relationship and things that he's showing you.
• 6:52
  Speaker 5: Yeah, I mean it's just it's just the sign of trush.
• 6:55
  Speaker 5: For four years now. Uh, you've seen me grow each
• 6:58
  Speaker 5: and every year and every aspects. You mean, like like
• 7:01
  Speaker 5: I said before, he said to himself that could be
• 7:03
  Speaker 5: a starter at any point or anytime or any team.
• 7:06
  Speaker 5: So I mean that's just the kudos that you.
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  Speaker 7: Know to my work.
• 7:09
  Speaker 5: And you know he's seen me, like I said, day
• 7:11
  Speaker 5: in the day after the last four years, put the
• 7:12
  Speaker 5: work in, and it's this level of trust that you know,
• 7:15
  Speaker 5: I put myself in being undrafted and you know, being
• 7:17
  Speaker 5: into a situation where you know I can get a
• 7:19
  Speaker 5: chance to win with these guys.
• 7:21
  Speaker 8: And you know, and with you. Just just wanted to
• 7:26
  Speaker 8: ask you about film study with you, I mean, they
• 7:28
  Speaker 8: were showing a lot of smoke blitzers what we call
• 7:31
  Speaker 8: where it was like it looked like a zone but
• 7:33
  Speaker 8: it wasn't there. No, not tonight. They were blitzing you
• 7:35
  Speaker 8: tonight a little bit. Yeah, they were trying to. Yeah,
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  Speaker 8: but I'm saying, just you talking about Game two, and
• 7:40
  Speaker 8: I remember you said you're going to go back in
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  Speaker 8: the film room. How much just you been in being
• 7:44
  Speaker 8: in the film room helped you this year? And how
• 7:46
  Speaker 8: have you seen that leaping in terms of you being
• 7:48
  Speaker 8: able to replace and make all the passing rays that
• 7:50
  Speaker 8: you did, Because I feel like that's a huge improvement
• 7:53
  Speaker 8: and I really liked the way you've adjusted to that.
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  Speaker 2: I think the thing about watching film is you got
• 7:59
  Speaker 2: to be willing to the bad. I think most people
• 8:02
  Speaker 2: they only want to watch it when it's good. So
• 8:04
  Speaker 2: I wanna watch the games when I play bad, like
• 8:06
  Speaker 2: the game the night when I play bad, like what
• 8:07
  Speaker 2: could I have done better? And I think that's the
• 8:10
  Speaker 2: perspective that helped me change as far as my playmaking
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  Speaker 2: and seeing the floor I wanna see what I can
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  Speaker 2: do better, And yeah, I think that's what we did
• 8:17
  Speaker 2: after game too. Men, me and my train to see Hans.
• 8:19
  Speaker 2: We just watched four in the morning. He called me like,
• 8:22
  Speaker 2: you woke, I'm seeing stuff. I text you a couple
• 8:24
  Speaker 2: of clips like hey, this is this is what I'm seeing.
• 8:26
  Speaker 2: And they came out and helped me a lot that
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  Speaker 2: game three and then it just gave me energy and
• 8:30
  Speaker 2: rolled over to game four and five in.
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  Speaker 4: And what's it been like? Obviously the coaching staff they're
• 8:36
  Speaker 4: always working with you on what they want you to do,
• 8:38
  Speaker 4: but then also the collaboration of you being like I
• 8:40
  Speaker 4: actually think I can do this and them kind of
• 8:42
  Speaker 4: learning maybe how you can kind of go outside some
• 8:45
  Speaker 4: normal boundaries because of what you can do. What has
• 8:47
  Speaker 4: the been like just kind of going back and forth
• 8:48
  Speaker 4: and them realizing the different things they can do with you,
• 8:50
  Speaker 4: and you kind of also doing what they wanna do.
• 8:53
  Speaker 2: It just comes with getting better. You know, some things
• 8:57
  Speaker 2: I'm not the best at, some things I'm really good at. So,
• 9:00
  Speaker 2: like I said, just playing to my strengths and not
• 9:02
  Speaker 2: trying to go towards my weaknesses. And Finch, you do
• 9:04
  Speaker 2: a great job of keep me away from those.
• 9:07
  Speaker 5: Last one.
• 9:09
  Speaker 3: For all of you, there's a different ways in which
• 9:11
  Speaker 3: you guys won the games. This series give you confidence
• 9:15
  Speaker 3: of how far you guys can go in the postseason. Yeah,
• 9:20
  Speaker 3: I'll just say because how deep we are as far
• 9:22
  Speaker 3: as like our bench, I feel like our bench is
• 9:24
  Speaker 3: almost better than our start in five. Like you know,
• 9:27
  Speaker 3: we got starters on the bench, so it's hard to
• 9:30
  Speaker 3: beat guys that come in with so much energy, Nads
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  Speaker 3: and to kill.
• 9:35
  Speaker 7: Dante.
• 9:36
  Speaker 2: They come in with so much energy that it gives
• 9:39
  Speaker 2: us energy to start in five and the shot making,
• 9:41
  Speaker 2: the ability on the benches, it takes us to another level.
• 9:44
  Speaker 8: Awesome.
• 9:44
  Speaker 9: Thanks