Utah Jazz head coach Will Hardy knew what to expect before his team’s game Sunday against the Minnesota Timberwolves ever started.
He knew Anthony Edwards was going to pose a major threat not just as an explosive downhill scorer, but also as a 3-point shooter.
“This is what happens when you play against an elite player,” Hardy said prior to the game on Sunday. “We’ve talked about this a lot this year. Sometimes there aren’t great choices.
“I think there are certain types of 3s that we would like to try to take away. I don’t think that we can go into tonight’s game with the mindset of he’s going to shoot no 3s, or that we’re going to try to take away all of his 3s. I think it’s about honing in on a few different specific types of 3s that he takes and trying to limit those.”
Edwards has been an above-40% 3-point shooter this season and the Jazz managed to hold him to a still respectable 35.7% on the night, but even limiting him from outside made little to no difference.
Hardy’s words seemed to be prophetic. There weren’t any great choices when it came to defending Edwards, because in just 31 minutes played through the first three quarters (he was able to comfortably rest during the final period), Edwards scored in every way, from everywhere en route to a 41-point performance in the Timberwolves’ 128-102 win over the Jazz.
In the first quarter alone, Edwards outscored the Jazz 21-20, putting Utah in a hole it was never able to dig out of. By the end of the night, Edwards passed Andrew Wiggins to become the third leading scorer in Timberwolves franchise history.
And actually, instead of digging themselves out of from Edwards’ early flurry, the Jazz committed 22 turnovers throughout the night. From those miscues the Timberwolves were able to convert 26 points, including 20 fast break points.
Kessler from deep
The Jazz were beat in nearly every statistical category so there wasn’t too much to write home about, but there was one thing that stood out as uncharacteristic, which is worth mention.
Walker Kessler took six 3-pointers on Sunday night, going 1-of-6 overall.
It looked like early on it was part of the Jazz’s strategy to play Kessler a little farther on the outside, potentially to pull former Jazzman Rudy Gobert out of the paint.
But the most outside shots in a single game that Kessler had taken before Sunday was two, so six treys was a bit of a shock. Unfortunately there were no Utah-based reporters in Minnesota on Sunday, so no one was able to ask Hardy or Kessler what the impetus was behind the sudden increase in long balls. Those answers will have to wait until Monday night to be answered.
I’m not opposed to seeing Kessler expand his game to the perimeter. It would benefit him and the Jazz if he were to become and even average threat from outside, and frankly, the Jazz only have 14 games left in a season wherein the results don’t matter, so why not let it fly?
