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Anthony Edwards<\/a> came up big for the Minnesota Timberwolves in their dominant 117-95 win over the LA Lakers in Game 1 of their first-round series \u2014 but in his eyes, he wasn\u2019t the star of the night. That honor, he said, belonged to Jaden McDaniels, who paced the team in scoring.<\/p>\n Edwards put up 22 points, and while he struggled with efficiency \u2014 going just 8-of-22 from the field \u2014 he nearly notched a triple-double with nine assists and eight boards. Still, for Edwards, the night belonged to McDaniels, who matched his career playoff high with 25 points on a blistering 11-for-13 shooting clip.<\/p>\n Speaking after the game, Anthony Edwards narrated how the Timberwolves have been pushing McDaniels to adopt an MVP mentality on both offense and defense \u2014 and to ignore the soft coverages the Lakers<\/a> dared him with.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/template><\/p>\n <\/p>\n \u2022 <\/p>\n <\/template><\/p>\n \u201cWe tell him every game, \u2018Be the MVP of the game on both sides of the ball,\u2019\u201d Edwards told the ESPN broadcast. \u201cWe knew in this series, (the Lakers) were gonna bank on him not staying aggressive the whole night.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n \u201cWe told him all week, \u2018Be aggressive for all four quarters. Don\u2019t stop shooting, pick your spots, trust yourself, trust your work\u2019 \u2014 and he did just that. And here he is, the MVP of the night.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n McDaniels, in the first year of his five-year, $131 million deal with Minnesota, also shot a perfect 3-for-3 from deep, helping the Timberwolves go 21-for-42 from 3 as a team.<\/p>\n![\"march](\"https:\/\/staticg.sportskeeda.com\/skm\/assets\/march-madness-logo.png\"){kind=logo}
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