Despite his Minnesota Timberwolves picking up a 107-101 win over the Oklahoma City Thunder on Monday night, Anthony Edwards was not happy with how the game was officiated.
“I’m going to take the fine,” Edwards said after dropping a team-high 27 points. “The refs did not give us no calls tonight … I don’t know how we won tonight.”
Minnesota shot 15 free throws compared to Oklahoma City’s 22, which isn’t much of a disparity, but Edward’s gripe with the officiating seemed more personal to his one-on-one matchup with the Thunder’s Shai Gilgeous-Alexander.
The Canadian guard went to the charity stripe for 16 attempts, drilling 15 of them as part of a game-high 37-point performance in the loss. Edwards, in comparison, only shot four free throws, which is below his 6.7 attempts per game on average.
It also isn’t the first time Edwards has taken notice of what he feels is somewhat preferential treatment in favour of Hamilton, Ont.’s Gilgeous-Alexander.
“It’s hard to with the calls that Shai gets,” Edwards said following a loss to the Thunder on Jan. 21. “It’s hard to shut him down, you can’t touch him… that team is a good team, especially when they get calls like that.”
In that contest, Gilgeous-Alexander shot 13 free throws en route to 33 points as Oklahoma City picked up a 102-97 win, but the disparity wasn’t as large as Edwards took 10 attempts from the line.
Gilgeous-Alexander didn’t have the same intense feeling towards the Timberwolves or Edwards after Monday’s contest, as he took a diplomatic approach when asked what he thought of Edwards reportedly saying he couldn’t wait to face OKC again during his post-game walk through the tunnel.
“They’re one of the better teams in the league,” Gilgeous-Alexander said. “There’s no other way to really find out who you are… than playing against the best. So it’s not just them, all the other teams at the top of the league, we wake up for those games and love the challenge”
The regular season series is now over with an even 2-2 record between the first-seeded Timberwolves and second-seeded Thunder.
It looks like NBA fans will have to wait for a potential playoff matchup to see the dust settle between the two squads atop the Western Conference.