With the Wolves down one and Victor Wembanyama switched onto him, Anthony Edwards hesitated for a heartbeat, then sliced past the 7-foot-4 phenom for the game-winning floater that punctuated a 104-103 Minnesota comeback and instantly re-wrote his clutch résumé.
The Moment
Target Center clock read 7.2 seconds. Spurs up one. San Antonio’s best defender, Victor Wembanyama, switched onto Anthony Edwards at the logo. Edwards’ internal monologue? “Uh-oh.”
“Because he’s so tall, bruh,” Edwards said post-game. “He takes away everything—layup, jumper—and he’s got good feet. He can move. Yeah, he’s one of a kind.”
Instead of forcing a step-back three or firing a risky skip pass, Edwards jabbed right, decelerated just inside the arc, then exploded again. Wembanyama bit on the hesitation, Julius Randle’s post seal erased the help, and Edwards lofted a 3-foot floater off glass for a 104-103 lead that held when San Antonio’s final heave clanged away.
Why This Shot Changes Everything
Edwards has always owned the confidence; what he’s chased is decision discipline. Sunday’s finish was the clearest proof the 23-year-old is graduating from highlight factory to cold-blooded closer.
- Old script: Contested step-back three, regardless of matchup.
- New script: Survey the switch, manipulate space, use the defense against itself.
“A few years ago he probably shoots a step-back three over Wemby,” Rudy Gobert noted. “He can make it, but it’s not a high-percentage shot. Tonight he was patient, poised … that’s where the growth is.”
Inside the Comeback
Minnesota trailed 85-66 late in the third. The rally flipped when Chris Finch went small, sliding Jaden McDaniels to the five and spamming Edwards-Wembanyama pick-and-rolls. The Spurs scored 18 points over the final 16 minutes, shot 2-of-11 from deep in the fourth, and coughed up eight turnovers under relentless Wolves blitzes.
Clutch Metrics That Matter
Edwards is now 9-of-15 on go-ahead shots inside the final minute this season, the best mark among players with at least 10 such attempts. His 23 points pushed him to 1,211 for the season—third in the league—and the Wolves improved to 11-3 in games within three points inside the final two minutes, tops in the West.
The Chess Match
Gregg Popovich elected to switch everything after a timeout, betting Wembanyama’s length would bait a low-percentage jumper. Instead, Edwards’ hesitation froze the rookie just long enough to erase the angle on a contest. It’s the same tactic Shai Gilgeous-Alexander and Luka Dončić have used against length this season—only Edwards executed it faster, in a blink-and-you-miss-it burst.
What’s Next
The Wolves leapfrog Denver for the No. 2 seed at 28-12; a Thursday rematch in San Antonio looms large for tie-breaker implications. Edwards’ evolution turns every late-game possession into must-see TV—and every opponent’s scouting report into a nightly rewrite.
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