Latest / Bleacher Report / Anthony Edwards Talks Timberwolves Win vs. Warriors in Game 4 _ 2025 NBA Playoffs

Transcript

Anthony Edwards Talks Timberwolves Win vs. Warriors in Game 4 _ 2025 NBA Playoffs · Bleacher Report

• 0:03
  Speaker 1: And you really got going in the third quarter, both
• 0:07
  Speaker 1: individually and as a team.
• 0:08
  Speaker 2: Like, what did you find or what changed to get
• 0:11
  Speaker 2: you guys rolling the way that you did.
• 0:14
  Speaker 3: At halftime, coach came in and just said, were playing
• 0:18
  Speaker 3: like we already won a series pretty much, and I
• 0:22
  Speaker 3: don't really like that. And I didn't like how we
• 0:24
  Speaker 3: was playing overall, and I didn't like how I was
• 0:26
  Speaker 3: playing individually, so I knew I had to pick it up.
• 0:28
  Speaker 3: What had to change the most or what did you change?
• 0:30
  Speaker 3: Our defense? We was laying Jonathan Mingo just get everywhere
• 0:34
  Speaker 3: he wanted to go. Drakemnd was pushing the pace. We
• 0:36
  Speaker 3: wasn't impacting the ball less, he was crossing half court,
• 0:41
  Speaker 3: offensive rebounds, We wasn't boxing out, We wasn't limiting those
• 0:44
  Speaker 3: guys to one shot. Just game playing mistakes that can't
• 0:47
  Speaker 3: happen if you want to beat the championship team and
• 0:48
  Speaker 3: if you want to go to the finals or what's
• 0:50
  Speaker 3: the coming finals, at least you can't you can't let
• 0:52
  Speaker 3: those things happen. So we gotta be better.
• 0:54
  Speaker 1: And what it what is it like when you get
• 0:56
  Speaker 1: in one of those runs like you were offensively there
• 0:58
  Speaker 1: in the.
• 0:58
  Speaker 3: Third quarter, it's the best feel or ever.
• 1:01
  Speaker 1: Did it start with that shot that you made at
• 1:03
  Speaker 1: the end the first half to kind of get you going?
• 1:05
  Speaker 3: Uh? Probably, yeah, probably, Yeah, that was that was a
• 1:09
  Speaker 3: nice shot for me that got me going.
• 1:11
  Speaker 4: And Fitch was saying that you were one of the
• 1:13
  Speaker 4: most vocal guys that at halftime tonight was we're delivering
• 1:16
  Speaker 4: some of that message you were just talking about before,
• 1:18
  Speaker 4: Like what was your what was your message to the
• 1:20
  Speaker 4: team that halftime.
• 1:21
  Speaker 3: Yeah, I told him we only got two wins. I've
• 1:24
  Speaker 3: never seen the series and two to one, so I
• 1:28
  Speaker 3: told him, you know, we got to get two more wins.
• 1:30
  Speaker 3: And right now we're playing like we already got four wins,
• 1:32
  Speaker 3: Like we're playing like they're gonna lay down, and knowing
• 1:35
  Speaker 3: his team, knowing their head coach, they're never going to
• 1:37
  Speaker 3: lay down. So we had to We had to figure
• 1:39
  Speaker 3: it out, man, because if we would have kept playing
• 1:40
  Speaker 3: like that, we would have lost the night.
• 1:43
  Speaker 5: And it was inside talking to a couple of your
• 1:45
  Speaker 5: teammates about your running the third quarter what it was like,
• 1:48
  Speaker 5: and they said, you could hear the pain in the
• 1:50
  Speaker 5: crowd when you're on the road, you can hear the
• 1:53
  Speaker 5: pain in the crowd. What does that do for you
• 1:55
  Speaker 5: when you hear.
• 1:55
  Speaker 3: That satisfaction just the best satisfactor.
• 2:00
  Speaker 2: Never And what's your leadership role in Julius's leadership role
• 2:06
  Speaker 2: on this group? And how do you guys play well
• 2:09
  Speaker 2: off of each other's gams.
• 2:13
  Speaker 3: Leadership roles is not really I don't really it's not
• 2:16
  Speaker 3: really about it. I don't think. I don't really think
• 2:18
  Speaker 3: it's about like our roles. It's just about certain things
• 2:21
  Speaker 3: have to be said at certain times, because you know,
• 2:24
  Speaker 3: you can't get comfortable. Man, You can't get comfortable in
• 2:26
  Speaker 3: the NBA, especially not the playoffs. And just learning how
• 2:28
  Speaker 3: to play off of Juwe just when he in the
• 2:30
  Speaker 3: post norm want to cut Norman to space form, just
• 2:34
  Speaker 3: reading them man, just and I think the more we
• 2:37
  Speaker 3: played together, the better we've got been for me being
• 2:39
  Speaker 3: able to read them, want to be ready to shoot,
• 2:40
  Speaker 3: when to cut, when the screen form, when it get
• 2:42
  Speaker 3: out his way, because man here force heal force when
• 2:45
  Speaker 3: he going downhill. Man, he had to go on to night.
• 2:48
  Speaker 3: It was it was exciting to watch. I told him
• 2:50
  Speaker 3: he cold, And I heard.
• 2:55
  Speaker 6: You when you were coming into the locker room at halftimes,
• 2:57
  Speaker 6: just telling your teammates that they got to do a
• 2:59
  Speaker 6: better I were finding you so you can help them.
• 3:01
  Speaker 6: Do you feel like that was something that happened and
• 3:04
  Speaker 6: helped get you going in the third?
• 3:06
  Speaker 3: Yeah, for sure. And it was all Jayden, honestly, because
• 3:09
  Speaker 3: me and jay I talked to Jayden the most. Like
• 3:11
  Speaker 3: I tell Jayden all the time, I come up to
• 3:13
  Speaker 3: him in timeouts like, hey, these dudes the way they
• 3:15
  Speaker 3: guard you Boom, you got to be being actions with me,
• 3:18
  Speaker 3: you know. And I think one player he drove to
• 3:20
  Speaker 3: the corner, strung the defense out and then curled around
• 3:25
  Speaker 3: and d h O took me and set a great
• 3:26
  Speaker 3: screen and I walked into a trade ball. So yeah,
• 3:29
  Speaker 3: it usually it's usually Jade most of the time because
• 3:32
  Speaker 3: he gets the ball, he pushed it. If he ain't
• 3:33
  Speaker 3: got nothing, I tell him, come right back to me
• 3:35
  Speaker 3: and trust me. So big shout out to Jayden.
• 3:37
  Speaker 7: Hey, And in the first quarter, it looked like after
• 3:40
  Speaker 7: you hit a three, you were talking on the sideline
• 3:42
  Speaker 7: to Steph and saw the video of your pregame having
• 3:46
  Speaker 7: some fun with the night night. You know, how tough
• 3:48
  Speaker 7: is it to not have that player on the court
• 3:52
  Speaker 7: competing against you, to have someone to have that game
• 3:56
  Speaker 7: within the game against it, and how do you keep
• 3:58
  Speaker 7: that even though he's not in the game.
• 4:00
  Speaker 3: Sometimes it's tough. But trust me, man, I wish he
• 4:04
  Speaker 3: could be out there to play against him no matter
• 4:07
  Speaker 3: how it goes. But yeah, just from working out with
• 4:10
  Speaker 3: him in the summer. That's what I told him after
• 4:12
  Speaker 3: I hit a Tracy because he told me I had
• 4:14
  Speaker 3: missed one. He was like, you were't gonna make that.
• 4:16
  Speaker 3: He was too open, and I was like, I ain't
• 4:17
  Speaker 3: gonna never stop shooting him. I learned that from you
• 4:19
  Speaker 3: this summer. So yeah, man, he's the greatest, greatest shoot
• 4:24
  Speaker 3: of all time. So I would definitely love to compete
• 4:27
  Speaker 3: against him, man, But you know, he got hurt unfortunately,
• 4:30
  Speaker 3: and I hope he gets better. And I just wanted
• 4:33
  Speaker 3: to talk about that moment you ship with Gary Payton
• 4:35
  Speaker 3: obviously got his jersey and hire. Yeah, just to talk
• 4:37
  Speaker 3: about that moment. How dope it is that you got
• 4:39
  Speaker 3: these legends, you know, coming up to you kind of
• 4:41
  Speaker 3: giving you your props and stuff too. He didn't really
• 4:43
  Speaker 3: come up to me. I came up to him. I
• 4:45
  Speaker 3: don't think he's the type of guy to go up
• 4:47
  Speaker 3: to nobody and give anybody props anyway, So I went
• 4:50
  Speaker 3: up to him because of course I hear all the
• 4:52
  Speaker 3: stuff about him, and then I go watch film on
• 4:53
  Speaker 3: him and he was really like that. So I told
• 4:56
  Speaker 3: him like, man, I'm a big fan, and I love
• 4:57
  Speaker 3: the way you guarded man even offensively. Yeah, a lot
• 5:00
  Speaker 3: of game, you know what I'm saying. So and his
• 5:02
  Speaker 3: son kind of played defense similar to him. His son
• 5:04
  Speaker 3: super handsy, physical, So yeah, be shout out to him.
• 5:08
  Speaker 8: And at what point of this, maybe the regular season,
• 5:13
  Speaker 8: did you do it like register in your head that
• 5:15
  Speaker 8: Julius had like this level of offensive game and being
• 5:19
  Speaker 8: able to do what he's been able to do in
• 5:21
  Speaker 8: this series.
• 5:23
  Speaker 3: You said during the regular season, Yeah, like what did
• 5:25
  Speaker 3: you realize? I think when he came back from injury. Man,
• 5:27
  Speaker 3: when he came back from injury, it was just like,
• 5:30
  Speaker 3: I don't it was like a whole different person. Yeah,
• 5:32
  Speaker 3: pretty much. I don't even really know what else to say.
• 5:34
  Speaker 3: It just when he came back from energy from that
• 5:37
  Speaker 3: for that Phoeneis game, it was like, oh, yeah, we
• 5:39
  Speaker 3: might be onto something. So yeah, I think that was
• 5:41
  Speaker 3: that was a turning point.
• 5:43
  Speaker 1: And even when you've had big games, you're conscious about
• 5:47
  Speaker 1: saying James MVP or singing out you know, Knaves or
• 5:50
  Speaker 1: Julius or whatever. Why is it important to you to
• 5:52
  Speaker 1: be like their biggest cheerleader.
• 5:54
  Speaker 3: That's what it's about, man. I want to see your teammates, succeee.
• 5:58
  Speaker 3: You want to see your teammate shine team is my brothers.
• 6:01
  Speaker 3: I mean, we're going to battle every night, we play
• 6:03
  Speaker 3: eighty two games, we be we be with each other
• 6:04
  Speaker 3: eight nine months out of the year. So those guys
• 6:07
  Speaker 3: like my brothers, man, And it's nothing, it's nothing like
• 6:09
  Speaker 3: seeing them compete and produce at a high level because
• 6:13
  Speaker 3: you know that that makes everybody happy. And I can't
• 6:15
  Speaker 3: I can't wait to come here and praise him every
• 6:16
  Speaker 3: time every chance I get, because I know everybody want
• 6:19
  Speaker 3: to get me the credit. But I can't do it
• 6:20
  Speaker 3: without those guys. So, yeah, they did the MVP every night,
• 6:23
  Speaker 3: every single night. Many they come and play, They play
• 6:26
  Speaker 3: the balls off and I can't ask them for nothing better.
• 6:28
  Speaker 4: And last series, you mentioned a couple of times the
• 6:32
  Speaker 4: late night conversations you and see Hins would have trading clips,
• 6:35
  Speaker 4: reading defenses. How are those How those late night sessions
• 6:39
  Speaker 4: come about with you too? And how important you know?
• 6:42
  Speaker 4: How frequent are they? And how important are they Just
• 6:44
  Speaker 4: that conversation late at night between YouTube to your success
• 6:48
  Speaker 4: and breaking down the defense and navigating the playoffs.
• 6:52
  Speaker 3: It's super important because I mean, he's a he's a
• 6:55
  Speaker 3: psycho man. He like he breaks stuff down like two
• 7:00
  Speaker 3: ways that I've never seen before. And it helps me, man,
• 7:03
  Speaker 3: because I be struggling sometimes, Like I go out there
• 7:05
  Speaker 3: and I'm not playing well in the first quarter and
• 7:07
  Speaker 3: then he come bring me some film and he's like,
• 7:09
  Speaker 3: you gotta do this. So just being able to I think, listen,
• 7:13
  Speaker 3: be willing to learn. I think that's the biggest thing
• 7:15
  Speaker 3: for me, because most guys don't want to listen or
• 7:17
  Speaker 3: they think they know it all already. And having somebody
• 7:21
  Speaker 3: like that in my corner is big for me, man,
• 7:23
  Speaker 3: because he gets on me when I'm messing up, and
• 7:26
  Speaker 3: he never gives me too much credit. So I appreciate
• 7:28
  Speaker 3: him for sure. Awesome