After dethroning the reigning NBA champions in the series before, Anthony Edwards and the Minnesota Timberwolves fell short to the Dallas Mavericks in the 2023-24 NBA playoffs. A tough loss to come to terms with for any player, Edwards scoffed it off when asked if losing to the Mavs in the Western Conference Finals still bothered him.
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During an interview, the host wanted to know whether Edwards was over the loss to the Mavericks in the WCF or if it still bothered him to this day. And the Timberwolves star decided to keep it real with his response.
“The loss in the Western Conference Finals? Yeah, that sh*t gone. I mean, I can’t do nothing about it. I can’t go back and replay it. It’s over. We lost. All I’m thinking about now is if we get back there, what we gonna do? So, it’s over with.”
Interviewer: How long did it take you to get over the loss to the Mavs does it stick with you ??
Anthony Edwards: the Western Conference Finals ?? man that shit gone
Interviewer: Most people say they use it as a motivating factor
Anthony Edwards: Man they be lying pic.twitter.com/KeEBmcLksY
— Ahmed/The Ears/IG: BigBizTheGod (@big_business_) July 8, 2024
Players often hold on to certain losses, not as a grudge but as fuel to fire their motivation to return stronger. And the host made the same point when asking Edwards if he was using that playoff loss as a motivator like other players have in the past.
The Minnesota Timberwolves star’s unfiltered response even had the host burst out laughing.
“Man, they be lying. When you lose, you motivated. I mean, if you lose and you not motivated, it’s a problem. So, of course they’re gonna say they use that. Ask them do they use any loss within the 82 games as a motivating factor. So, I feel like that’s cap. You should always be motivated to get better and come back better.”
While many players have credited their previous defeats as motivation to achieve greatness, Ant’s response does make sense as well. So, a loss in the playoffs should not dictate how hard a player is supposed to work in the hopes of overcoming the obstacles that stood between him and his goal earlier. This just affirms his response when someone inquired whether the WCF loss to the Mavericks still bothered him or not.
Anthony Edwards’ optimistic response after being eliminated
The Minnesota Timberwolves had a great playoff run this summer. The team defeated the Phoenix Suns’ ‘Big Three’ and then went on to eliminate the reigning NBA champions, the Denver Nuggets. It wasn’t until they came across the Dallas Mavericks that the team came up short.
But when looking back at the Wolves’ playoff run, they had a tough matchup against the Nuggets. Both sides threw haymakers and the series went up to seven games for one team to finally come out on top.
Anthony Edwards and the rest of the squad gave it their all in defeating the Nuggets. This could very well have been the reason as to why the Wolves failed so miserably. The series ended in a gentleman’s sweep as the Mavs advanced to the NBA Finals.
After getting eliminated in Game 5 of the WCF, Edwards’ post-game interview had a few moments where he narrowed down what went wrong in the series.
“We never clicked altogether as a team in this series. Not even one game. I think that was the main thing. Like, in the last two series, we was all clicking at one time, making shots and stuff. We wasn’t clicking at one time here.”
However, even after getting dealt by Dallas in a gentleman’s sweep, Ant was optimistic for the next season, saying, “We’ll be back next year.”
The Wolves performed exceptionally in the playoffs and the regular season as well. Now as players get better and more familiar with one another, facing Minnesota is going to be a task for opposing teams in the upcoming season.
