If you were watching the Minnesota Timberwolves' loss against the Golden State Warriors on Sunday, you witnessed what was a pretty forgettable fourth quarter from Anthony Edwards. The Wolves' star made just one of his six shot attempts and committed two turnovers in the final frame of a game Minnesota was leading with under three minutes to go.
All superstars have their moments of failure, and all those moments can become learning experiences. Given that this was not the first fourth quarter we have seen Edwards falter in this season, many had begun thinking about his sometimes imperfect execution down the stretch of close contests. Could this be a real concern, or could it be something the fanbase was just over-thinking?
Timberwolves reporter Dane Moore decided to go directly to the source and ask Chris Finch about this topic after Minnesota's Wednesday practice. The responses given by Finch are sure to be an encouragement to anyone wondering about whether Ant can handle the pressure of consistently delivering in heated moments.
When asked about Anthony Edwards's crunch time decision-making this season, Finch said they went through the film of all of Ant's crunch time decision-making, and graded out that Edwards has made the right decision on 80% of those possessions.
— Dane Moore (@DaneMooreNBA) December 11, 2024
Later in the interview, Finch said… pic.twitter.com/MesyMbvLUr
Timberwolves coaches believe Ant is getting better in the clutch
"The last few days since that game, we went back and looked at all of his clutch time decision making this season," said Finch. "And he graded out at about 80 percent in our mind. Subjectively, putting our eyes on it, we felt that he has made the right play 80 percent of the time." This is a promising assessment of Minnesota's best player, and one that bodes well for the future.
As for how Ant got here, Finch says it has been a steady progression from the end of last season until now. Moore also notes that it was Finch's opinion that Edwards' clutch time grading is up from around 50 percent last season. "That switch, I think, started to happen mid-to-late last year," said the Timberwolves' coach. "Knowing that in the playoffs it was coming, he did a really good job, I thought, early playoff series, of really creating offense. Making the right play, and then letting the game come to him as it did."
This makes a lot of sense given the task Edwards was presented with in the 2024 playoffs. Being asked to execute down the stretch of close playoff games against the defense of the defending champion Denver Nuggets was no small challenge, and going through that multiple times was always naturally going to breed more confidence and refine Ant's process.
When it came to why things went bad at the end of the Warriors game on Sunday, Finch just chalked it up to not being in the moment. "I think he just got a little excited, got probably in a little bit of a personal battle the other night." That is something that can be cleaned up much more easily, and the more important takeaway here is that Edwards is clearly becoming better at being his best when everything is truly on the line.