Did Anthony Edwards spark Timberwolves like Giannis ignited the Bucks?

The Bucks have been on fire since Antetokounmpo's passionate locker room rant.

Feb 23, 2024; Minneapolis, Minnesota, USA; Milwaukee Bucks forward Giannis Antetokounmpo (34) works around Minnesota Timberwolves center Naz Reid (11) during the first half at Target Center. Mandatory Credit: Matt Krohn-Imagn Images / Matt Krohn-Imagn Images

Time sure flies in the NBA. Just over three weeks ago the Milwaukee Bucks were 2-8 and panic mode was setting in. There was talk about Giannis Antetokounmpo being traded and the entire thing blowing up just one year after Damian Lillard's arrival to give Milwaukee one of the league's more fearsome 1-2 punches.

Here we are on Dec. 4 and the Bucks have rattled off seven wins in a row to improve to 11-9 and they have the No. 1 seed in the Eastern Conference knockout round of the NBA Cup. Is a similar hot streak in progress for the Minnesota Timberwolves?

At 10-10, the Wolves have won two games in a row after losing seven of nine. It was a brutal stretch in which Mike Conley was dealing with a toe injury, Donte DiVincenzo couldn't shoot, Julius Randle and Rudy Gobert were being mocked and Anthony Edwards was growing frustrated.

After some tough conversations, they just might be on the right track. The big difference between what the Bucks have done and what the Wolves will try to do is the strength of opponents.

Milwaukee's seven consecutive wins are against the Rockets (15-7), Bulls (9-13), Pacers (9-13), Hornets (6-15), Heat (9-10), Wizards (2-17) and Pistons (9-14).

Not exactly the cream of the crop.

Minnesota's schedule the rest of December features the Clippers (14-9), Warriors (12-8) three times, Lakers (12-9), Spurs (11-10) twice, Knicks (13-8), Hawks (11-11), Mavericks (14-8), Rockets (15-7) and Thunder (16-5).

That is literally the cream of the crop.

But the Wolves have the pieces to be one of the best teams in the league. And even when they were losing seven of nine games to fall to 8-10, the average margin of defeat was 6.7 points, which was skewed some by a 14-point loss to Portland.

What sparked the Bucks? It might've been Giannis ripping his teammates after a blowout loss to the Knicks. "We came to New York after playing great last night. Then we come here and lose by 30. Are you OK with not competing? I'm not OK with that s***. We've got Boston in two days. We don't compete, we're going to lose by 30."

They lost to the Celtics in a tight finish and have since turned on the jets.

What might've sparked the Wolves? It might've been Edwards calling out his teammates.

"Our identity right now, me and Mike (Conley) was talking about it, I think is we soft as hell as a team, internally," Edwards said after the Wolves lost to Sacramento on Nov. 27. "Not to the other team, but like internally we soft, like we can't talk to each other. Just a bunch of little kids, just like we playing with a bunch of little kids. Like everybody, like the whole team, we just can't talk to each other and we gotta figure it out, man, because we can't go down this road."

Minnesota responded by sneaking out a win over Toronto and then beating the Lakers by 29. Did they crush the Lakers because they've flipped the switch or did it have more to do with the Lakers playing on the second night of a back-to-back? We're going to find out when the Wolves face the best of the best the rest of this month.

Related: Wolves' bench trio igniting one of NBA's best lineup combinations