After the Minnesota Timberwolves lost Game 4 of the Western Conference finals on Monday, the attention turned squarely onto Wolves guard Anthony Edwards, who had had quite the quiet shooting night.
Rather than his usual explosiveness, Edwards sizzled with just 16 points—his second-lowest scoring total during the playoffs—on 5-of-13 shooting.
Still, he defended the performance after the game.
"I don't look at it like I struggled, or [Julius Randle] struggled," Edwards said. "[The Thunder] just, they had a good game plan, making us get off the ball. Especially for me, man. They were super in the gaps, I made the right play all night."
Teammate Rudy Gobert took a similar approach to the conversation on Wednesday, just a few hours before a potentially series-ending Game 5.
"I thought he was great last game," Gobert told reporters, asked how he thought Ant handled the extra defensive attention on Monday. "As you know, we scored almost 130 points. We did what we were supposed to do offensively, we just got to get stops on the stretch, and I think that was the reason why we didn't win that game.
"I was really proud of the way, especially in the second half, [Edwards got] into the paint and found his teammates and made the right play. For a lot of people, they just think basketball is about scoring 30 every night, which is not true. It's hard to understand, but for people [who] truly understand that, it's about winning and it's about making the right play. If you bring two guys and you make the right play, you've done your job. I thought he was great."
Rudy Gobert on Anthony Edwards’ Game 4 performance: “I thought he was great … A lot of people think basketball is just about scoring 30 every night, it’s not true.” pic.twitter.com/y86scoh6HN
— Dave McMenamin (@mcten) May 28, 2025
Prior to Monday night's contest, Edwards was averaging 26.7 points per game in the WCF, plus 26.2 in the semifinal series. So 16 points is clearly not the standard here. And given the tight margin of defeat, you have to wonder whether the series would look different had he gotten more shots up.
But, to Gobert's point, the Wolves still got almost 130 points on the board. And you can't put the entire loss onto Edwards's shoulders.
We'll see if the guard can shake it off and come back stronger for Game 5 at 8:30 p.m. ET.
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This article was originally published on www.si.com as Rudy Gobert Defends Anthony Edwards After Quiet Shooting Night in Game 4.
