Wolves’ Chris Finch On Anthony Edwards: ‘You Could See It In His Eyes That He Was Going To Bring It Home’

The Timberwolves overcame a fourth-quarter deficit — twice — in holding off the visiting Lakers by a 116-113 count on Sunday, taking a commanding 3-1 series lead.

Anthony Edwards erupted for 43 points, nine rebounds and six assists, burying the game-winning free throws with under 10 seconds to go. That came after a challenged call by Chris Finch, which resulted in a foul by LeBron James. Initially, the call was that James hit the ball off Edwards and went out of bounds.

It would’ve been Lakers ball, down a point, had the call stood. Instead, it ended up with Edwards hitting the game’s final two points at the line.

“You could see it in his eyes that he was going to bring it home,” Finch told reporters, via Jon Krawczynski of The Athletic.

Julius Randle added 25 points and seven rebounds for Minnesota, and Jaden McDaniels scored 16 points. Naz Reid tacked on 12 in 20 critical minutes off the bench.

Luka Doncic led the Lakers with 38 points and James scored 27 — on just 5-of-9 shooting. He was the beneficiary of 18 free throws, knocking down 15. Rui Hachimura added 23.

Lakers coach JJ Redick opted to play his starters the entire second half.

“It wasn’t planned,” Redick told reporters. “But we just made the decision at halftime.”