Edwards' halftime talk sparks Wolves to 3-1 lead

SAN FRANCISCO -- Trailing astatine halftime aft getting dominated connected the boards, Minnesota Timberwolves prima Anthony Edwards spoke up successful the locker room, sparking a third-quarter turnaround and eventual 117-110 triumph implicit the Golden State Warriors to spell up 3-1 successful their second-round series.

"I told them, 'We lone got 2 wins,'" Edwards said aft Monday's Game 4, recalling his message. "I've ne'er seen a bid extremity 2-1. I told them we person to get 2 much wins and close present we're playing similar we already got 4 wins. ... We had to fig it retired due to the fact that if we would person kept playing similar that, we would person mislaid tonight."

Edwards led the complaint aft the break, scoring 16 points connected 6-for-8 shooting, astir single-handedly matching the Warriors' full for the 4th arsenic Minnesota won the 4th 39-17. It was the largest affirmative borderline for a 4th successful Wolves postseason history.

While Edwards jumpstarted the scoring, Minnesota's defence held Golden State to 7-for-19 shooting (36.8%) and outrebounded the Warriors 10-5 aft being beaten connected the boards 25-15 successful the archetypal half.

"He was 1 of the guys that was astir vocal astatine halftime," Wolves manager Chris Finch said of Edwards. "[He] realized what was going connected retired determination and we needed to beryllium better. It started with him, really, and mounting the tone."

Edwards finished with 30 points connected 11-for-21 shooting and 5 assists and seasoned guardant Julius Randle scored 31 connected 11-for-21 shooting with 5 rebounds.

The 2 person been Minnesota's pillars of accumulation during the Wolves' 7-2 grounds done the postseason frankincense far.

However, the 30-year-old Randle gave each the recognition to the 23-year-old Edwards.

"I cognize it starts with us, but it's Ant," Randle said. "Ant's the brightest prima successful the country ... He has that 'it' factor. For me, I ever effort to archer him to spell beryllium great."

It was Edwards' 2nd consecutive 30-point effort successful the Western Conference semifinals and 3rd of the playoffs arsenic the Wolves won Games 3 and 4 astatine Chase Center to make a closeout accidental successful Wednesday's Game 5 backmost successful Minneapolis.

Jaden McDaniels added 10 points and a vocation postseason champion 13 rebounds and Nickeil Alexander-Walker scored 13 points connected 5-for-5 shooting disconnected the bench, portion the Wolves were capable to bounds Jonathan Kuminga and Buddy Hield to a combined 9 points aft halftime aft they scored 27 unneurotic successful the archetypal half.

Now the Wolves volition purpose to bring the aforesaid urgency they recovered successful the 3rd 4th from the opening tipoff Wednesday, with a accidental to scope the league finals for a 2nd consecutive year.

"For america it's conscionable astir defending location court, being amended than that and growing," Alexander-Walker said. "It's acold from over. This 1 is going to beryllium harder than the archetypal three. It's conscionable astir having that absorption to bash what we request to bash to get it done."