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The hard lesson learned by virtually every NBA superstar from Michael Jordan to Kobe Bryant to LeBron James is that you need to take your lumps before you progress to the next level. A rough shooting night, a poor defensive performance, a failure to come through in clutch moments — they’re all par for the course for every player who eventually graduates to the echelon of all-time greats.
During Sunday night’s Game 7 against the Denver Nuggets, emerging face of the league Anthony Edwards was well on his way to the latest example of those familiar superstar growing pains. He was shooting horrifically, unable to process Denver’s constant double-teams and attempting to strike the proper balance between creating opportunities for his struggling teammates and taking it upon himself to get back into a game that was rapidly slipping from their grasp.
“It was tough, man, because I couldn’t find myself, my rhythm tonight,” Edwards said after the game. “So I just had to trust my teammates, man. They kept trapping me even though I was off, so I tried to make the right play.”
It got to the point where Wolves coach Chris Finch sat Edwards for three crucial minutes of the second quarter, during which they cut the Nuggets’ lead to seven points. In 20 first-half minutes, Edwards was a team-worst minus-14.
“I thought we were trying to play through Ant a lot and it was kind of bogging us down,” Finch said after the game. “When we got him out in the second quarter, we got Kyle [Anderson] in there, that kind of loosened up the ball movement a little bit and we were able to get some other guys involved, just enough to feel the game.”
Most 22-year-olds wouldn’t take kindly to an extended bench stint during the biggest game of their career. Edwards almost certainly didn’t either, but his ability to put his first-half difficulties behind him helped lead to a remarkable second half from both himself and the Minnesota Timberwolves, earning Edwards a double-boost in the process.
Not only did he take the postseason lumps we’ve learned are ultimately necessary…
Source link : https://www.cbssports.com/nba/news/wolves-anthony-edwards-shakes-off-disastrous-game-7-start-to-climb-yet-another-rung-on-nba-superstar-ladder/
Author : Colin Ward-Henninger
Publish date : 2024-05-20 05:09:03
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