Playoff win against the Nuggets was more than Anthony Edwards

He was the fist that punched the Denver Nuggets in the mouth in the first quarter of the first game of the second round of the NBA Playoffs on Saturday, pouring in 13 points in less than six minutes of action to put his Minnesota Timberwolves up 16-4.

In the pregame presser, Minnesota Timberwolves Coach Chris Finch reminded everyone of the 109-80 blowout his team incurred against this same opponent in the same Ball Arena to start their postseason a year ago. It set the tone for the entire series, given that Finch said it took the Wolves "a game and a half to recover" and their elimination was complete in five.

But thus far in postseason 2024, Ant sets the tone. Mimicking the Phoenix Suns in the first round, the Nuggets pivoted to forceful double-teams on Ant, and went on a 21-5 run of their own when Ant's teammates couldn't compensate. The Nuggets threatened to break it open, up 38-32 with three-a-half-minutes left in a rock fight of a first half. Then Ant sped down for a pull-up three-pointer before the defense could get set, and jumped the lane for a steal and layup that suddenly slashed the lead to one. At the half he had 25 of Minnesota's 40 points.

But in the next two quarters the ratio went from 62.5% of his team's output down to 30% - 18 of 60 points - in an eventual 106-99 victory that seized home court advantage and served further notice that this 2023-24 Wolves season may feel magical but is no fairy tale.

By now it is no secret that the Wolves have taken a leap forward because Ant has invested a more sophisticated, mature mindset into his phenomenal athleticism and hard-earned scoring prowess. He is the 22-year-old leader because he continues to absorb the wisdom of other bona fide leaders on this team - Mike Conley and Rudy Gobert, two sage elders, who recognize that this ascending superhero could make their career-long championship dreams come true. In different ways that exemplify their complementary temperaments, they are sharing the reins as well as their galaxy-brained experiences in order to fast-forward the epic future of this protean pupil.

Conley is cool serenity, the clear-thinking alchemist who orchestrates chaos into composition. The ceiling for Ant has risen to the third tier of heaven because he is attracted to the way Conley excels at the more refined aspects of basketball teamwork. They are not "buds," but acknowledged teacher and prodigy. Ant has come to covet the way Conley is willing to smudge the spectacular for the sake of the greater good. Conley, like the rest of us, feels blessed that Ant has happened into his life.

Everyone in the Wolves organization is slightly in awe of Conley's preternatural and mysteriously proactive composure. But only Ant can potentially pair it with the physical skill set of a Marvel character.

And lest Ant flag in his learning curve, Conley remains very much in the picture. As the regular season entered the home stretch and then burst into the playoffs, Conley has demonstrated bouts of uncharacteristic lapses in judgement that may have been at least partially explained in his visceral answer to a postgame question from Dane Moore about how much he wants to win a ring in the closing chapters of his career.

The first half found him scoreless and he finished the contest with a trio of turnovers. But it wasn't a total coincidence that Denver made its 21-5 run immediately after he left the floor and smart bets would have been laid on him finishing with double-digit points even after the first half goose egg. As his teammate Nickeil Alexander-Walker said in a Phoenix locker room 10 days ago, Conley's deadeye shooting is underrated because he keeps it under wraps until the other scoring options seem untenable.

Sure enough, after watching the Wolves scoring drought continue as the team conserved his energy in the final five minutes of the first half, Conley didn't miss in the third quarter, alternating two pull-up treys with two quicksilver drives to the cup and the free throw one of them yielded. It was 11 points in less than 8 minutes for a playmaking point guard who has happened to shoot 43.6% from three-point range in 100 regular season games since coming to the Wolves - and now 43.8% from distance in ten playoff games as a Timberwolf.

But as usual, the splashes took a back seat to the bountiful orchestration, this time starring Naz Reid. Naz is a confidence player, able to be great when he feels greatness in his bones. After a sterling first game against the Suns in the first round, he was mostly an afterthought in the final three, and came out wretched in Denver - a scoreless first half in which the Wolves were outscored by 17 in his 7:42 of play as his faith was shredded before our eyes.

Conley went to the bench just two minutes after Naz came in midway through the third quarter. But oh what a lift it provided.

Naz fed Conley for a trey in the left slot for his first assist of the game. On the very next possession Conley stole the ball and led the break up the middle of the floor, ignoring Ant being doggedly chased and hitting Naz in perfect rhythm for two long strides and a resounding dunk for his first points of the game. Less than a minute later Naz found Conley at the top of the key for a serpentine drive that became Naz's second assist.

His third and final assist also went to Conley in the fourth quarter. But by then Naz was Two Words Naz; Sixth Man of the Year Naz. The Naz deep in his bag of faithful tricks.

With Conley back in the game to start the fourth, and posted up, received his feed and twirled for his patented left-handed banker. Then he drove through contact that wasn't called and deposited a left-handed floater. A too-strong trey banked in and Naz rode the crest of that good fortune skying to slam-back an Ant miss on the Wolves next offensive possession. A drive from the left baseline earned him another three-point play and a conventional trey in the slot off another feed from Conley closed shop on his 14-point fourth quarter, exiting with 4 minutes to play and the Wolves up six, confidence stirred down to his marrow.

It was closing time, when the patron saint of dirty work, Rudy Gobert, holds sway with industrial strength persistence. Gobert is the third leader on the Wolves, the one who is teaching Ant about the follow-through; that floss isn't slick once it roots out the obstacles, cleans the crevices, and denies the cavities that will fester if you let them. Stylistically the two are very different, and at cross-purposes without careful planning. What they share is an overwhelming desire to win, fostering a grit that resembles metallic shavings more than grime.

As I've written many times, Ant's most obvious remaining flaw are the deficits in his attention span, especially when the shiny object of a formidable challenge is not in front of him. Gobert's deceptively potent virtue is keeping his eyes and willpower on the prize. As the Wolves have blossomed into a new beast during this season, the word "trust" is frequently invoked. It may be most meaningful as it relates to Ant and Gobert, because the strength of their trust can be a pillar for the construction of a champion.

Over the final four minutes of the game Saturday, there were five rebounds available and Gobert grabbed four of them. He finished with 13, five more than anyone else who took to the court. Four of his six points also came in this closing time. With the Wolves up three and 3:20 left in the game, he ran a pick-and-roll with Conley, had his shot blocked via excellent help defense from the Nuggets' Aaron Gordon, and outfought Nikola Jokic and Gordon for the putback. And with two minutes left, he improbably banked one of his awkward push shots from the short midrange.

As Jace Frederick of the Pioneer Press perceptively noted, Gobert also fooled Jokic into thinking he would contest a short floater and instead moved back to swat away the lob Jokic threw to Gordon. And when the Wolves were safely ahead in the final 90 seconds, he stripped Jokic going up for a shot and beleaguered him into multiple moves before a floater went in.

It is never too early to remind the favored opponent that the defense will be relentless for the full 48 minutes.

Finch made the brilliant distinction between players who win you games and players who make sure you don't lose games. Gobert is the latter, a "floor raiser," as Finch added. It is not as obvious, nor as natural, as his relationship with Conley, but Ant, who hates to lose, is taking notes.

Sitting on the stool by his locker stall with his shoulders draped by a towel, Gobert was reveling in this vital first-game win in his own quiet fashion. When I asked when it was that he felt this team made its leap in terms of poise and maturity, he harkened back to the adversity of last season and the resilience that began to show and the trust that was seeded, that led to "the love that we have for one another."

Then the 31-year-old veteran of 11 NBA seasons continued.

"I really think that I have never been a part of a group that really understands each other, that cares about one another and wants to see each other shine," said Gobert. "In this league it is not something you find very often. I love going to battle every night with these guys. I'm really having a lot of fun."

So are those who love the beauty of teamwork, laced with vivid characters both young and old.

Editor's Note: The story was update to correct the name of Jace Frederick

Britt Robson

Britt Robson has covered the Timberwolves since 1990 for City Pages, The Rake, SportsIllustrated.com and The Athletic. He also has written about all forms and styles of music for over 30 years.