Anthony Edwards on Sunday nearly generated one of the highlights of the season if not for an ill-advised foul committed by Bradley Beal.
Edwards’ Minnesota Timberwolves led Beal’s Phoenix Suns 112-93 with under two minutes left at Footprint Center in Phoenix, Ariz. The T-Wolves got a steal that led to Edwards and Donte DiVincenzo getting loose for an easy transition opportunity.
With the game decided and nobody ahead of them, DiVincenzo bounced a pass to set Edwards up for a potential alley-oop slam. But as Edwards rose up to dunk the ball and put the exclamation point on the game, Beal shoved Edwards while the latter was in mid-air.
What made the play even crazier was that there was originally no foul called on the play. The referees initially ruled that Edwards just mishandled the pass out of bounds. The Timberwolves successfully challenged the play, correcting the call to a flagrant 1 foul on Beal.
Edwards was understandably livid at the non-call at first but was able to gather himself and head back to the bench before getting called for a technical foul. The NBA recently suspended Edwards for picking up his NBA-leading 16th technical foul and will issue more suspensions for every other technical Edwards picks up for the rest of the regular season.
With 17 technical fouls to his name entering Sunday’s game, Edwards showed good restraint to avoid receiving another suspension.
Edwards made both free throws before he was promptly subbed out of the ballgame. He poured on 44 points as his constant torment of the Suns continued in Sunday’s 116-98 win.
