Timberwolves' postseason party continues as Anthony Edwards plays beyond his years

Anthony Edwards' maturity was never on display more than it was Sunday.

Despite dazzling with 40-point performances throughout the playoffs, he was bottled up in the most important game of his career. In Game 7 on the road against the defending champion Denver Nuggets in the second round of the playoffs, he was a woeful 1-for-7 from the field as his Minnesota Timberwolves trailed by 20 points at the top of the third quarter.

But the 22-year-old didn't panic. Or wave the white flag. Or succumb to frustration.

Instead, he dug in on the defensive end and focused on bottling up Jamal Murray, who had torched the Timberwolves for 24 points in the first half on 8-for-15 shooting. With Edwards' offense sputtering, he poured his energy into stopping the hottest player on the opposing team, holding him to just 11 points on 1-for-7 shooting from beyond the arc for the remainder of the game.

"I'm not one dimensional," Edwards told TNT during his postgame interview. "I'm not just a guy who can score. I'm a guy — whoever they best guard is — I can go lock 'em down. I feel like I did that on Jamal in the third quarter and fourth quarter. And that's what turned the game around."

The Timberwolves went on to complete the biggest comeback in Game 7 history, transforming that 20-point deficit into a 98-90 win to advance to the Western Conference Finals for the first time in 20 years, where they will face the Dallas Mavericks in Game 1 on Wednesday.

For Edwards, even though it was one of his worst games of these playoffs, in many ways it was one of his most impressive performances. Yes, he had a postseason-low 16 points from the field on 6-for-24 shooting, including going 2-for-10 from beyond the arc.

But every time the camera panned to him,