"He Kind Of Woke Me Up": Anthony Edwards Talks About Epic Battle With Jaylen Brown
Dec 1, 2025
On Saturday, Anthony Edwards and Jaylen Brown dueled on the hardcourt as the Minnesota Timberwolves hosted the Boston Celtics. When the dust settled inside Target Center, it was Edwards and the Wolves coming out on top with a 119–115 victory.
After the game, Edwards talked about the immense task of defending Brown in the fourth quarter while also trying to keep in step on offense. Ant-Man, who topped for Minnesota with 39 points on 50.0% field goal shooting, gave himself a pat on the back for the work that he did on the defensive end.
“He had 40, so [I was] just trying not to let him get a shot off in so many ways,” Edwards told reporters. “I feel like I did a good job on him. He made a tough shot on me one time, kinda told me I’m too small.”
The Wolves superstar is referring to a sequence back in the first quarter when Brown drew him on an isolation play. Brown, who won Finals MVP honors in 2024, pulled off a dribbling masterclass before launching a fadeaway that somehow banked in. As the Celtics’ leading scorer ran back on defense, he whipped out the “too small” gesture to taunt Edwards.
Apparently, the two had a brief verbal exchange as well. “I’m like, that might have been the luckiest shot ever,” Edwards recalled. “He said, ‘That’s not luck. That’s all work.’ I was like, let me find somebody that works on shooting a fadeaway on the elbow going off the glass.”
Though Brown tied his season high with his 41-point performance against the Timberwolves, the Celtics’ offense unraveled in the second half after the visiting team had a 69–59 advantage heading into the break. Minnesota held Boston to just 23 points in each of the last two quarters, even as Edwards continued to cook and his fellow starters Julius Randle (16 points, nine rebounds, six assists) and Donte DiVincenzo (15 points, three rebounds, eight assists) chipped in.
With 14.5 seconds left in the final frame, Edwards sealed the deal when he overcame both Derrick White’s defense and a dying shot clock to sink a three that put the Wolves up 118–112. After the buzzer sounded, Edwards and Brown approached each other, but with a different intent in mind.
Instead of discussing the physics of midrange bank shots, the two Atlanta natives embraced each other and respectfully conversed about their epic showdown.
