After a rough stretch in which the Minnesota Timberwolves got embarrassed by the Phoenix Suns and Sacramento Kings and then put into their place by the powerhouse Oklahoma City Thunder, they have rebounded to win two in a row against good, if injury-ravaged, opposition (Boston Celtics and San Antonio Spurs). This was what made the way they played for most of their 149-142 overtime victory against the New Orleans Pelicans that much more disappointing.
The Pelicans outplayed the Timberwolves for most of the night, requiring another herculean effort from Anthony Edwards, who had to snatch the win from the jaws of defeat. Edwards, with the Timberwolves down by two, 129-127, with a few seconds left in the fourth, attacked the basket and drove towards the hoop to make an easy layup to tie the game, setting up an eventual win for Minnesota in the extra period.
Edwards ended up with 44 points on the night on 16-30 shooting from the field (6-13 from beyond the arc) and he had to play 47 minutes just to avoid another embarrassing defeat for the Timberwolves. And come the end of the game, the exhaustion in him was palpable. He was hunched over and holding on to his shorts just as the final buzzer had sounded after he put in a shift that required him to nearly play 36 consecutive minutes.
Anthony Edwards after playing almost 36 consecutive minutes in the OT win over the New Orleans Pelicans pic.twitter.com/LnxxDlWMVV
— Timberwolves Clips (@WolvesClips) December 3, 2025
Edwards rested for just five minutes and 33 seconds of game time on the night, as he proceeded to play the final 35:27 of the ballgame. That is simply an insane workload for the Timberwolves to be giving Edwards this early in the season against the lowly Pelicans, but to his credit, he was up to the task.
Timberwolves nearly slip on another banana peel against weaker opposition
This Timberwolves team is slipping up against inferior teams, and this has been a bit of a trend for them over the past few seasons.
Nonetheless, Minnesota will want to give Edwards more room to breathe moving forward. They have to get another guard on the trade market to prevent overtaxing their best player this early in the season.
Edwards has at least one full day of rest before they battle the Pelicans again on the road.
