The Oklahoma City Thunder were able to outlast the Minnesota Timberwolves last night by a score of 128-126 to push the T-Wolves to the brink of elimination from the 2025 NBA Playoffs. With a 3-1 deficit in the series, Minnesota will need to steal a win on the road Wednesday night in order to keep its season alive.
Despite being the leader of the team, Timberwolves shooting guard Anthony Edwards had a relatively quiet night after being held to just 16 points. Even though he missed his playoff scoring average, Ant refuted the notion that he and teammate Julius Randle struggled.
“I don’t look at it like I struggled, or he (Julius Randle) struggled,” Edwards said in a postgame interview. “They just, they had a good game plan making us get off the ball. Especially for me, man. They were super in the gaps, I made the right play all night.”
“I think it’s similar to Game Two. A lot of just sitting around and spectating,” explained Julius Randle after the game. “I don’t know… I think it was just a lot of me just like spectating. I’ve got to figure out a way to get myself involved in actions. I think I didn’t take my first shot in the second half until like 20 seconds [left] in the third quarter. I’ve got to figure out a way to get myself in position to be more aggressive rather than standing, spectating, or just trying to crash the glass.”
— Minnesota Timberwolves (@Timberwolves) May 27, 2025
Interestingly, Anthony Edwards said that he did attempt enough shots for him to consider last night’s performance bad.
“I don’t really look at it like I struggled,” he added. “I didn’t get enough shots to say I struggled, so that might be how you guys look at it. But, yeah, I didn’t struggle at all. I just made the right play.”
During the 2025 NBA Playoffs, Anthony Edwards has averaged 20 field goal attempts per game. However, he only attempted 13 shots in last night’s contest.
“It’s an urge that I want to get the ball in the rim, put it up there,” Edwards said. “But you don’t want to take bad shots and get your team out of rhythm. So I was just playing the game the right way, man.”
Next up: GAME 5 IN OKC 😤 pic.twitter.com/s75mQNTQqx
— OKC THUNDER (@okcthunder) May 27, 2025
Timberwolves head coach Chris Finch admitted that Ant didn’t have a particularly strong first half. However, he explained that Edwards played better later in the game.
“I thought the second half was more aggressive,” Finch said after the loss. “He got downhill. We got him off the ball a little bit more. When he got to the paint, I thought he found some people, made the right plays. First half, he lagged behind a little bit too much. He needed to get out in front so we could stretch the floor and screen for him a bit. But the second half was much better.”
Finch also added that Julius Randle’s struggles were noticeable, which would explain why he only played 28 minutes despite averaging almost 36 per game in the playoffs.
“[He] didn’t have a great night, obviously,” Finch said. “The bench was really, really good, so I rolled with them.”
“Are you the superstar player you proclaim to be or not?”@stephenasmith said Anthony Edwards’ reaction to his Game 4 performance was “inexcusable.” pic.twitter.com/MBwguzivrG
— First Take (@FirstTake) May 27, 2025
The good news is that Anthony Edwards doesn’t feel pressure to score 30 points per game in the playoffs to set his team up for success.
“I don’t put no burden on myself. I just try to win. The only burden I put on myself is to try to win,” he described. “We gave ourselves a chance tonight. We just didn’t come out from the start with the same aggression that we did in Game Three.”
“We gave up 19 offensive rebounds and 21 turnovers, so they got 40 more possessions than us, and we lost by two,” Edwards continued. “I’m not saying that’s good. I’m not saying that’s bad. But we can take that and run with it, so we’ll be alright.”
The Timberwolves are in Oklahoma City tomorrow night, where they will attempt to stave off elimination from the playoffs and keep their hopes of reaching the NBA Finals alive. That game is scheduled to begin at 8:30 p.m. EDT.
