Before the Lakers series began, Anthony Edwards sent a stern message to his teammates via text, “We the underdogs. Be aggressive, come out ready to fight. It’s gonna be a dog fight.” Looks like that’s exactly what the Wolves needed to channel their playoff intensity. Despite playing in enemy territory, they dominated LeBron James and Co. with their physicality and blew them out to land the first punch in the series.
Even the Lakers’ Big Three credited the Wolves for their effort after the game. LBJ said, “That’s what they bring to the table. Maybe it took us one playoff game to know what type of intensity they bring.” Austin Reaves shared a similar sentiment, “I think that they just physically beat us from the get-go… They came out with a little more aggression and physicality to their game that helped them win tonight.” And Luka Doncic acknowledged that the Lakers “let go of the rope” which can hurt them going forward.
This glaring issue leaves JJ Redick with a massive headache because now he needs to find a way to match the Wolves’ physicality. Or else, an early playoff exit could be on the cards. However, Ant-Man’s latest media interaction could prove to be a silver lining for the head coach. During the postgame interview, the Wolves star was asked about the team’s physicality, “Coming into the series, how was that a point of emphasis for you guys to kind of establish that and obviously there’s referees involved too so how do you know the line that you can kind of push it to without getting on the bench?”
Edwards innocently responded with a smirk on his face, “Great question. How many free throws they shot Ju? How do I find that? 16. How many we shot? 11. Okay. No answer.” There is a thin line between playing great physical basketball and being so aggressive that you get penalized by the refs. And no one understands it better than Edwards. Of course, his history with officials is not great as he paid a whopping $320,000 in fines over the course of this season. Reasons include publicly cursing out the refs, acting out on the court, and more.
Moreover, he was penalized with 18 technical fouls, out of which one was rescinded by league office upon review making him eligible to play the final regular season game. And his history with officials could prove beneficial for the Lakers as they might look to exploit that aspect and bait him into getting a tech, or a potential ejection. It could also tone down the Wolves’ physicality.
Anthony Edwards aims to be “as physical as possible” as he reveals mindset for Game 2
After initially addressing the officiating concern with an innocent response, Edwards got a bit more serious and dove into his team’s strategy, “Just gotta play through it. Just try to be as physical as possible. I mean the main thing for us was we didn’t want them to get in the bonus early because you know now everybody gets into a rhythm. You see a couple free throws go in, Luka gets into a rhythm, Bron gets into a rhythm, all five of those guys. So, that was the main thing. We wanted to keep them out of the bonus early in the quarter and I think we did a good job of that in the second half.”
Image Credits: IMAGN
Yes, the Wolves did not commit a lot of fouls despite playing highly physical basketball. And their intense defense limited the LA team to just 95 points. Seeing how their strategy played out tonight, Edwards has no plan of taking his foot off the gas on Tuesday despite the risk of getting in foul trouble, “Nothing different. Come out with the same mindset and just be aggressive. And try to throw the first punch and the last punch.” Now that he has made his intentions clear, it’s up to JJ to strategize a way around it and protect home court to tie the series. Do you think the Lakers can pull it off?
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