Anthony Edwards' 53 points not nearly enough as Timberwolves blown out by Pistons

Chris Hine, The Minnesota Star Tribune on Jan 4, 2025

By clicking submit, I authorize Arcamax and its affiliates to: (1) use, sell, and share my information for marketing purposes, including cross-context behavioral advertising, as described in our Privacy Policy , (2) add to information that I provide with other information like interests inferred from web page views, or data lawfully obtained from data brokers, such as past purchase or location data, or publicly available data, (3) contact me or enable others to contact me by email or other means with offers for different types of goods and services, and (4) retain my information while I am engaging with marketing messages that I receive and for a reasonable amount of time thereafter. I understand I can opt out at any time through an email that I receive, or by clicking here

DETROIT — Two nights after Anthony Edwards described how the constant double teams he was facing made it hard for him to score, he got what he wanted. Scoring was no problem for Edwards against the Pistons on Saturday night, as he set a career high with 53 points.

The problem was, nobody else on the Wolves could score ... nor could they defend. The Pistons downed the Wolves, 119-105, and it appeared as if Edwards’ heater affected his team’s ability to find an offensive rhythm — or maybe Edwards felt the need to shoulder the scoring burden since the Wolves starting lineup got 14 combined points from Jaden McDaniels, Mike Conley and Rudy Gobert. Conley didn’t score, and Gobert was held scoreless until the fourth quarter.

Either way, it added up to one of the weirdest losses of the past few seasons. Edwards goes for a career high in a game his team never had much chance of winning past the first half. The Wolves fell behind as many as 24 and never seriously threatened after that. Cade Cunningham led Detroit with 40 points and nine assists, while former Wolves guard Malik Beasley had 23 points off the bench.

The Wolves' starting lineup got the night off to a slow start, struggling to gain traction offensively. Gobert opened the game with three turnovers in the first seven minutes, and the Wolves opened in an early deficit.

After saying he couldn’t find open looks because of constant double teams on Thursday, Edwards came out hunting his shot, and was 4-for-8 for 13 points in the first quarter.

As the Wolves got into their bench, their offense improved to the tune of 53% shooting for the quarter, but that bump was temporary for the night. WIth Josh Minott (illness) out, coach Chris Finch opted to keep his rotation to eight players with Conley taking Minott’s place to start the second quarter. That stretch was a disaster for the Wolves, who didn’t score while Edwards sat to open the second.

Edwards scored the team’s first points of the quarter at the 7:01 mark. The Wolves again went through a stretch where offense was an uphill battle for them, just like the second quarter against Boston in their previous game and the third quarter against Oklahoma City in the game before that. The Wolves went into halftime down 55-43 after scoring just 15 points in the second quarter.

Edwards had 26 of their 43 first-half points and was 6 for 9 from 3-point range. He shot 8 for 15 overall; his teammates shot just 6 for 22. The bench combined to shoot 3 for 10 while Julius Randle was 1 for 5. For Detroit, Cunningham finished the half with 20 while Beasley had 17.

The problems persisted after the break. Even as Edwards continued scoring in the third, the Wolves’ other starters continued to struggle. The Wolves fell behind 21 early in the third, and that was their largest deficit of the night to that point. Edwards was up to 44 (on nine 3s) by the end of the third, but another problem for the Wolves was that Cunningham wasn't far behind. He was up to 34 by the end of the third.

The Wolves got within 11 in the fourth quarter but never cut their deficit to single digits.

Injury report

Rob Dillingham was out because of a sprained ankle that is expected to keep the rookie guard out another one to two weeks. Minott, who had been the ninth player in the rotation, was also out because of an illness.