It was a statement win for the Timberwolves, as much as those exist in January — the Timberwolves beat the Thunder in a battle of the top two seeds in the West, 107-101, behind 27 points from Anthony Edwards.
That doesn’t mean Edwards was happy — he started ripping the referees during his walk-off interview.
“I’m gonna take the fine because the refs did not give us no calls tonight. We had to play through every bump, every grab, I don’t know, I don’t know how we won tonight,” Edwards said.
He continued that rant when asked about the officiating by ESPN’s Tim MacMahon.
“The refs was bad tonight. Yeah, they was terrible,” Edwards told ESPN without prompting. “We was playing 8-on-5... The cat got their tongue tonight, so it’s all good. It’s not fair, but it’s all good.”
Edwards will get fined by the league for those comments. This is the play that really set him off, a dunk that put the Timberwolves up four with 1:57 to go, Edwards thought he deserved the and-1 on the play.
PUT SOME RESPECT ON Æ5 https://t.co/QjsDOc4PRx pic.twitter.com/0KB78fCV7p
— Minnesota Timberwolves (@Timberwolves) January 30, 2024
Edwards got to the line four times in this game and has said for a while he doesn’t feel he gets the respect from the officials he deserves on his drives. This might be the surest sign that he’s becoming a superstar — from Jordan through Shaq, Kobe, LeBron, and Curry, they all have games and stretches of play where they believe the officials are letting them down. Edwards is joining that group in feeling he deserves more respect.
It was still a quality win for the Timberwolves, a game where Rudy Gobert helped his Defensive Player of the Year case with his play, despite Shai Gilgeous-Alexander going off for 37 points, seven rebounds and eight assists to keep it close. Karl-Anthony Towns scored 21 for Minnesota and Jaden McDaniels added 14 and also had a strong defensive game for Minnesota.
