Timberwolves’ Anthony Edwards Promises To Improve After NBA Playoff Exit

Minnesota Timberwolves star guard Anthony Edwards vows to improve after Wednesday night’s 124-94 series-ending blowout loss to the Oklahoma City Thunder in the Western Conference finals.

“I’m going to work my butt off this summer,” Edwards said after Minnesota’s Game 5 loss at Oklahoma City. “Nobody’s going to work harder than me this summer. I’ll tell you that much.”

The three-time All-Star made that statement after the Thunder, the league’s No. 1 seed led by MVP Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, advanced to their first NBA Finals since 2012.

Anthony Edwards: “I don’t know why people would think it would hurt, it’s exciting for me. I’m 23. I get to do it a whole bunch of times…hurt is a terrible word to use. I’m good.”

“Nobody is going to work harder than me this summer.”pic.twitter.com/Kzxwbe0XZL

— Ballislife.com (@Ballislife) May 29, 2025

After Edwards finished the regular season averaging 27.6 points per game — fourth best in the NBA — he was held below 20 in three of the five games against Oklahoma City.

Edwards had 19 points in the elimination game and went 7-for-18 (38.9%) shooting, including 1-for-7 (14.3%) from 3-point territory, with three turnovers.

“They were the better team. They came out and beat us, punched us in the face,” Edwards added, “and we lost the game, we lost the series.”

Minnesota was outscored by 29 points in the 39 minutes Edwards was on the court, and the team committed 21 turnovers and trailed by as many as 39 points.

Anthony Edwards Says Wolves Will Do It Again Next Year

When the Timberwolves trailed 26-9 after the first quarter, Edwards had six points while the rest of the roster had generated only three on 1-for-15 shooting.

“We lost our connectivity,” Timberwolves coach Chris Finch said. “But all credit to the Thunder. They certainly deserved this. They played outstanding. We came up short in a lot of ways.

Despite losing the series, the Wolves defeated the Thunder by 42 points in Game 3.

That’s the largest margin of victory in NBA history (regular season or playoffs) against a team that won at least 65 games in the regular season that year.

But was the season a failure?

“I remember having a conversation with Anthony, like midseason,” Finch said. “I said, ‘What do you think we think a good season feels like? What do you think that looks like for us right now?’ And he said, ‘Let’s get into the playoffs, win a round and see where we go.’ It was exactly my thought at the time too.”

Edwards recalled the conversation during his postgame interview.

“We thought it was going downhill,” he said. “We thought it was over for us at one point. It was looking real bad for us. … [And] we turned it around. “We did pretty good this year, man. We just came up short again. Try to do it again next year.”

The Timberwolves have still never reached the NBA Finals in their franchise history. In 2004, they also lost in six games to the Los Angeles Lakers in the Western Conference finals.