Anthony Edwards’ behavior is the prevailing topic of conversation ahead of Saturday’s game between his Minnesota Timberwolves and the host Miami Heat.
Edwards, the NBA’s first overall pick in 2020 and an All-Star in each of the past three years, ranks eighth in the NBA in scoring this season (29.1).
However, he left the bench without permission in Minnesota’s most recent game, a 126-102 loss at the Atlanta Hawks on Wednesday.
Edwards was upset that Timberwolves coach Chris Finch decided to pull his starters with the Hawks leading 109-80 and only 7:52 left in the game.
“Obviously upset with the performance and rightfully so,” Finch said. “But he needs to stay on the floor and root for his team.”
Edwards is an Atlanta native and had several members of his family at Wednesday’s game, perhaps making it an even more emotional situation for him.
Then again, Edwards has lost his cool at other moments. On Christmas Day, for example, Edwards argued a foul call and was ejected in overtime of a game that Denver won 142-138. Edwards scored 44 points in that game.
The Timberwolves have lost three of their past four games, but Edwards is far from their only talented cog.
Julius Randle is a versatile power forward averaging 22.3 points, 7.0 rebounds and 5.8 assists. Jaden McDaniels is averaging 14.8 points. Rudy Gobert is a walking double-double (11.0 points, 11.0 rebounds), and Donte DiVincenzo (13.3 ppg) has deep shooting range.
Meanwhile, Miami has won four straight games, and the Heat are 12-5 at home as compared to Minnesota’s 9-7 road record.
The Heat are coming off an impressive 118-112 road win over the Eastern Conference-leading Detroit Pistons on Thursday. Miami was led by Norman Powell, who hit seven 3-pointers on his way to a game-high 36 points.
Powell said he had to score in different ways based on Detroit’s defense.
“They were taking us out of our first, second and third options,” Powell said.
For the season, Powell leads Miami in scoring (24.2), and he has been especially important because Heat All-Star guard Tyler Herro has missed 28 of his team’s 34 games.
“We have to lean into (Powell),” Heat coach Erik Spoelstra said.
Herro (toe) will sit out again Saturday and role player Pelle Larsson (ankle) is questionable, but the Heat can still get secondary scoring from Bam Adebayo (17.7), Andrew Wiggins (16.5) and super sub Jaime Jaquez Jr. (16.5).
An emerging talent is 7-footer Kel’el Ware, who is averaging 12.4 points and a team-high 10.6 rebounds in his second NBA season. Ware is shooting 60.5% on 2-pointers and 45.3% on 3-pointers.
It will be interesting to see how Ware fares against 7-foot-1 Gobert, a four-time NBA Defensive Player of the Year, most recently in 2024.
The matchup between Randle and Adebayo is another good one, and DiVincenzo will try to rain down 3-pointers on Miami’s defensive-minded point guard Davion Mitchell. DiVincenzo has made 9 of 21 from the arc in the past three outings and is shooting 37.9% from deep on the season.
