Jayson Tatum, Jaylen Brown hold high praise for Anthony Edwards
The Boston Celtics and Minnesota Timberwolves had an epic early regular season duel Monday evening.
It began with a thunderous posterizing dunk from Jaylen Brown over Rudy Gobert roughly three-and-a-half minutes into the contest; it followed with a big-to-big lob from Karl-Anthony Towns to Rudy Gobert in semi-transition midway through the third quarter plus Jaden McDaniels‘ game-tying corner 3-pointer with less than two minutes to go in regulation.
But Jayson Tatum and Anthony Edwards were the two stars of the evening. Tatum finished with 32 points, five rebounds, two assists and five steals on 12-of-22 shooting, while Edwards tallied 38 points, nine rebounds and seven assists on 15-of-25 shooting in its 114-109 overtime victory over the Celtics.
It included this dominant two-way stretch from Edwards down the stretch.
Heater of the early season belongs to Anthony Edwards – who just did all of this in a two-minute sequence in overtime to beat the undefeated Celtics. pic.twitter.com/BqiFguLySN
— Rob Perez (@WorldWideWob) November 7, 2023
Both Brown and Tatum held high praise for Edwards after the game.
“Ant’s one of my favorite guys to watch in the league, how explosive and talented he is,” Tatum said. “Continues to get better each and every year, and I just like how he competes. He competes on both ends of the floor. He made some big, big plays for his team tonight, especially down the stretch.”
“He’s a hooper, we already knew that,” Brown said. “He’s one of the young stars, faces of our league. We had a lot of schemes that we tried to throw at him, but he was able to get going. When a guy like that gets going, it’s going to be tough.”
"He's a hooper, we already knew that… he's one of the young stars, the faces of our league"
— Celtics on NBC Sports Boston (@NBCSCeltics) November 7, 2023
Jayson Tatum and Jaylen Brown praise Anthony Edwards after his 38-point night vs. the Celtics pic.twitter.com/3d1RnByzho
Edwards has blossomed into one of the NBA’s premier starts–perhaps already eclipsing superstardom. The former No. 1 pick is averaging 28.2 points, 6.7 rebounds and 4.8 assists on 52.0 percent shooting, including 47.2 percent from 3-point range and 82.8 percent from the charity stripe.
Outside of his rookie season, Edwards has posted 23.2 points, 5.4 rebounds, 4.2 assists and 1.5 steals and is always one of the most explosive athletes on the floor with supreme multi-level scoring capabilities. He just turned 22-years-old, is still improving as a (point-of-attack) defender and carries a large burden offensively.
It’s been a very micro early-season sample, but Minnesota–who possess the NBA’s best defense with the league’s fourth-highest NET Rating–could make noise in the Western Conference if Edwards is consistently playing at this level on both ends. It’s a big ask, but if this summer/fall are any indication, Edwards is prime for a big season regardless.
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