Anthony Edwards said Thursday that he doesn’t play passing basketball when defenses are focused on him. He showed it on Saturday.
The Minnesota Timberwolves star scored a career-high 53 points on Saturday, accounting for the majority of his team’s scoring total in a 119-105 loss to the Detroit Pistons. Edwards also finished the game with two assists and six turnovers.
Edwards also accounted for 16 of Minnesota’s 34 field goals and 31 of its 80 attempts.
It was a miserable game for the Timberwolves, who leaned on Edwards more than the final numbers suggest. At one point, he scored 43 of his 68 points and didn’t record his second assist until the final three minutes of the game. The Pistons led by double digits in the opening minutes of the second quarter and led by as many as 24 points in the third.
The loss is a summary of the problems that have plagued the Timberwolves since they traded Karl-Anthony Towns and bet big on Edwards as the first (and, frankly, second) option in their offense. The team’s record is now 17-17, while Edwards has expressed frustration with the amount of double teams he is experiencing.
After a loss to the Boston Celtics on Thursday, Edwards said he wasn’t having fun having to pass out on double teams and was still trying to figure out what to do. He also made it very clear that he would prefer not to approve:
“That’s a good kind of basketball, but it’s not the way I want to play, of course. I’m only 23, I don’t want to just pass the ball around all night… But the way I protect myself, I think I have have to do it.”
The Pistons could have been listening.