Watch: Jaden McDaniels, Anthony Edwards lock up Kyrie Irving, Luka Doncic
The end of the Timberwolves-Mavericks game Monday night was as entertaining as any game in the league this season. Dallas, on the back of Kyrie Irving's 26 points in the fourth quarter, rallied from a massive deficit to make it a 3-point game with 14.8 seconds to play.
What happened on the final possession may represent a turning point for the Timberwolves, who despite being in the thick of the jam-packed Western Conference playoff race have gotten no attention from the national media.
Trailing 124-121, the Timberwolves could've fouled the Mavericks and sent them to the line to preserve the lead, but Minnesota didn't take the easy road. They told Kyrie and Luka Doncic to bring their best.
The bold decision put the spotlight on Anthony Edwards and Jaden McDaniels, and in the heat of the moment they showed the world how suffocating their man-to-man defense can be – locking up two of the most dynamic guards in the game and forcing a turnover to win the game.
"Ant said play it out so I had no problem with that. We all good defenders. I feel like it was a pride thing, not needing to foul. Just try to get the stop," said McDaniels.
“This is what me and Jaden are out here for,” Edwards said. “Put us on the best two players and see what we do.”
Minnesota fans have seen it time and time again this season. Now maybe the rest of the league will start to notice.
Title: Bring Me The Sports co-owner, editor Email: joe@bringmethenews.com Twitter: @JoeBMTN Education: Southwest Minnesota State University Location: Minneapolis, Minnesota Expertise: All things Minnesota sports Nelson has covered Minnesota sports for two decades, starting his media career in sports radio. He worked at small market Minnesota stations in Marshall and St. Cloud before joining one of the nation's highest-rated sports stations, KFAN-FM 100.3 in the Twin Cities. There, he was the producer of the top-rated mid-morning sports show with Minnesota Vikings announcer Paul Allen. His radio experience helped blossom a career as a sports writer, joining Minneapolis-based Bring Me The News in 2011. Nelson and Adam Uren became co-owners of Bring Me The News in 2018 and have since more than tripled the site's traffic and launched Bring Me The Sports in cooperation with the Sports Illustrated/FanNation umbrella. Nelson has covered the Super Bowl and numerous training camps, NFL combines, the MLB All-Star Game and Minnesota playoff games, in addition to the day-to-day happenings on and off the field of play. Nelson also has extensive knowledge of non-sports subjects, including news and weather. He works closely with Bring Me The News meteorologist Sven Sundgaard to produce a bevy of weather and climate information for Minnesota readers. Nelson helped launch and manage the Bring Me The News Radio Network, which provided more than 50 radio stations around Minnesota with daily news, sports and weather reports from 2011-17.