NBA
Anthony Edwards explains how Wolves are fueled by skeptics in Lakers series
Antonio is a life long sports enthusiast and professional journalist, who shares an obssesive urge to find and dig up the most interesting facts to guide gamblers towards more exciting, yet safe bets. In his own words, ''you can never really know enough about the things you love''.
All posts by Antonio KozlowUpdated33 mins ago on April 30, 2025
Tonight is the night that the Timberwolves are hoping to close out the Lakers in Game 5 of their Western Conference first-round playoff series, as they lead 3-1 against all odds. The Minnesota camp agrees that the team has been playing with an extra motivation, as everyone saw them as underdogs since the beginning.
Even coach Chris Finch admitted that star Anthony Edwards has been thirsty to prove everyone wrong. Since Game 1, the All-Star guard was open about the matchup’s expectations. “The Lakers supposed to win. That’s just how it’s supposed to go,” he said last week. “We’re not supposed to be here.”
Three contests later and the sixth-seeded Wolves are leading the series, with the Ant Man dropping 43 points in Sunday’s 116-133 win against Los Angeles. Coach Finch is not surprised over how the young star has reacted to fans and experts expecting them to lose the clash. .
“I’ve been with him long enough to know that doubting him is not a really good strategy,” he said after practice on Tuesday. “He always wants to prove you wrong, and so sometimes he’ll figure things out faster than you think he will. He has a great sense of the moment.”
The Lakers, on the other hand, have been seen as favourites as they are led by Luka Doncic and LeBron James.”We knew what everyone was saying, and our team is always the best when they play with a chip on their shoulder,” the tactician kept at it. “And so we just had to establish that chip on our shoulder.”
Another who agrees is teammate Mike Conley. “Our motivation has been from people doubting us outside of our team,” the guard said. “Like Ant said, we weren’t picked to win this thing. We weren’t picked to do anything in the postseason. So when we line up there tomorrow, that’s what we thinking about.”
The veteran then praised Edwards’ progress as a leader this campaign. “Having that kind of leadership and that kind of awareness to say those types of things at his age is very important,” Conley assured. “I think it kind of gave us a good springboard into the postseason.”
