DALLAS (AP) 鈥� Minnesota star guard Anthony Edwards scored 17 points playing 23 minutes in the over the Dallas Mavericks on Monday night coming off the bench, though that wasn’t the original plan.
Edwards was penciled in the starting lineup and announced to the crowd, but he was nowhere to be seen, replaced at the opening tip by Mike Conley. Edwards finally made his way to the court and checked in 2:01 into play.
Wolves coach Chris Finch provided the simple explanation. 鈥淣ature calls,鈥� he said.
鈥淢ike had my back,鈥� Edwards said with a grin.
He said he was 鈥渕iserable” sitting out, feeling 鈥渓ike a kid in a candy store鈥� upon his return.
鈥淎nt was awesome, man,鈥� Finch said. 鈥淗is defense was outstanding. Just let the game come to him. Stayed aggressive. Made quicker decisions. And things looked kind of easy for him as a result.鈥�
Edwards, averaging a career-high 29.5 points in 35.5 minutes per game, returned after missing the previous six games with .
Edwards would need to play in all eight remaining Wolves games to be eligible for . He finished seventh in most valuable player voting in each of the last two seasons.
Edwards has played in 58 games, but his 3 minutes, 8 seconds against Indiana on Oct. 26 don鈥檛 count toward the NBA鈥檚 records for games played.
Minnesota announced earlier Monday that power forward Jaden McDaniels is week-to-week after an MRI revealed left knee patella tendinopathy and a bone bruise. McDaniels, averaging a career-high 14.8 points per game, with the injury and didn鈥檛 play Saturday.
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