Minnesota Timberwolves players didn’t expect they would have to hold back Tony Brothers from going after Chris Finch. The Timberwolves head coach was infuriated when the experienced official ignored his request for a timeout. Furthermore, Brothers even screamed at Finch. He wasted no time in terming the referees’ behaviour as “unprofessional”.

Anthony Edwards was also in that mix. He was involved in the action where Finch wanted the timeout, as well as in calming down the tempers emerging from both sides. Had this been a few years ago, Edwards may have torn into the referee alongside his head coach. He’s amassed large fines for previously doing so. This time, he had a good enough reason. Yet, Ant showed poise.

Despite Brothers almost costing the Timberwolves a turnover, Edwards didn’t highlight the possible error to be decisive. Edwards was respectful towards the seasoned official. “Tony Brothers is Tony Brothers, you know we all love him, so it’s all good,” he said about the incident.

Anthony Edwards recognised competition as the reason behind their heated exchange. With a playoff game on the line, Chris Finch reacted angrily to Brothers missing his instructions. “We didn’t really hear what was going on. It’s competition at the highest level. We want to win. Finchy want to win,” said the Timberwolves superstar. A part of it also seems to be Edwards’ mentality.

After Game 1 of the series against the Nuggets, where officials frequently blew their whistles for Jamal Murray, Edwards didn’t put them under blast. Instead, he sent a powerful message to the Timberwolves. They had to be mentally strong to face adversity, even if it was coming from the referees at times. “We weren’t mentally ready because we knew how it was going to go, and that they’re gonna get foul calls, and we might not get none, and that’s okay,” said Edwards.

The Wolves demolished the Nuggets from that point onwards. Even without Edwards, they never gave referees a chance to influence the results. As a team, they understand that it’s the work they do on the floor that plays the larger role in winning. Anthony Edwards and Co. hence, don’t want to waste energy on trivial matters.

Anthony Edwards asks teammates not to bail out Wembanyama

The Minnesota Timberwolves battled to defend their home floor. However, the San Antonio Spurs had Victor Wembanyama. The franchise cornerstone’s historic 39-point performance, coming alive in the fourth quarter, blocked any chance of a Wolves comeback. The towering center single-handedly changed the game, scoring 16 in the final phase despite being in foul trouble towards the end.

Anthony Edwards watched everything he did closely. He couldn’t point to a moment in the game that staged Wembanyama’s fourth-quarter outburst. But Edwards did feel the Timberwolves “bailed him out” at certain points.

“I think we bailed him out a couple of times. He shot 12 free throws. Like a lot of those shot attempts that turned into free throws was going to be a bad shot. If he make it, he make it. But yeah we bailed him out by fouling him a whole lot of times. Like he was falling away from the rim and we just fouled him. I think if we take away a couple of those free throws away it’s a different game,” Edwards explained.

The Timberwolves have to game-plan around neutralizing another elite big man. They did it in the first round, limiting Nikola Jokic thanks to Rudy Gobert’s solid defense. With Wemby, the challenge is different since he’s a threat on both ends of the floor. The Wolves will probably plan to offer the Spurs star more looks from beyond the arc, rather than allowing him to take efficient shots near the rim.

Both times that Wembanyama has taken 6 or more threes, the Wolves have kept him to shooting under 50% from the field. It’s imperative to narrow down and polish those tactics now that they are down 2-1 in the series. Given how they did everything to defend the Joker, expect the Timberwolves to hone their focus on Victor Wembanyama going forward.

He may still have explosive performances. But the Wolves will make it hard.