Anthony Edwards has played 40, 40 and 39 minutes in the last three games of this Western Conference semifinal series, and on Tuesday night in San Antonio he sounded like a man running out of time to fix the same problems.
The Minnesota Timberwolves now trail the San Antonio Spurs 3-2 after dropping Game 5, surrendering an 18-point third-quarter lead and watching Victor Wembanyama detonate from the opening tip. Edwards walked into the post-game interview room with no interest in pretty answers.
"I think they had a lot of second chance points. I don't know, man. I got to go look at the film to really answer that question, but first thing that comes to mind is second chance points," Edwards said. He paused to do the math out loud, working through the rebounding numbers in real time, before circling back to the broader problem he sees on his own team's side of the ball.
"Tonight, some of the stuff that Wemby was doing, you can't, you don't really have too much of an answer for it. Just kind of hope he misses. He came out high. He made a bunch of shots. I feel like we adjusted, fought back, fought back, fought back in the game. We tried to dig ourselves out of the hole. But eventually they created another lead and running out in transition. We got to get back, get matched up — just game-plan mistakes that we keep making, and it's too late in the series to make these mistakes."
Asked specifically whether the lapses were in transition, in pick-and-roll coverage, or in screen navigation, Edwards refused to localise the problem.
"It's a little bit of everything. Not knowing the game plan. Executing on offense. Like we know they're going to come out and be physical defensively. We know how to go against that. And then us defensively, we know our coverage is what we're supposed to be doing when they're in pick-and-roll. And I think we're just not doing it enough."
If there is a single defensive lever Minnesota can pull, it is keeping Jaden McDaniels on the floor. The wing defender drew three early fouls in Game 5 — the same sequence that broke the game open in Game 2 — and the Wolves were down 18 at the end of the third quarter once again with him watching from the bench.
"Of course," Edwards said when asked whether McDaniels' foul trouble shifted the night. "He means so much to our team. I always get selfishly frustrated when he gets in foul trouble just because his presence out there on the defensive end and being able to make plays and be aggressive — we need that. So when he goes out in foul trouble it hurts us, because he means so much to our team. He's one of our anchors defensively. He's been in those positions before also. So yeah, he means a lot to our team."
Edwards' game-plan focus for Game 6, then, comes back to one survival rule.
"I mean we know, like I said, the game plan, we know what we got to do in order to beat the team. And I think everything starts with Jaden McDaniels trying to keep him out of foul trouble. Because he's so important to us. It hurts everybody when he gets in foul trouble. And some tough calls being made out there against him, so it's not too much we can say. But yeah, we just we try to avoid him getting in foul trouble. And if we can do that, we give ourselves a great chance to win the ball game."
The note of optimism, when it arrived, came in answer to a question about whether the belief inside the locker room had cracked.
"I don't see nobody in the locker room that's too worried," Edwards said. "At the end of the day, man, it's another basketball game. So you come out, put your boots on, and get ready to go to war."
It is also a situation Edwards has been in before. Two years ago, the Wolves lost Game 5 in the same round to Denver and rallied to win the series. Asked what he draws from that experience now, the Minnesota star kept it characteristically tight.
"We know what we got to do in order to beat the team."
Wembanyama, who set the tone with what Edwards described as a stretch where "the basket starts to look a little big for him," was both the answer to the night's biggest question and the easiest hook for Edwards' broader point about playoff stars.
"He is one of the best players in the league. Playoff times the best players rise to the occasion and at any given moment they can go off. You seen Ant last game, how he was able to erupt — once he gets it going, it's hard to stop. And I think Wemby came out with that same mindset. He made some easy ones and then the basket started to look a little big for him. I wouldn't say we expected it. We came into the game trying to win a game and we understand what kind of player he is. So when you're a good player like that, at any given moment, you can just break out."
The two-day break before Game 6 will be exactly that, Edwards said, "not really a break, but it's going to be two days." He sounded delighted by even that.
Minnesota's season comes down to one home game on Thursday. If McDaniels can stay on the floor and the Wolves can finally execute the coverages they claim to know, the series flips back to San Antonio at 3-3. If not, Wembanyama will close it out in front of his own crowd, and Edwards' "game-plan mistakes" line will become the epitaph of a season.
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*Originally published on [NBA News Global](https://nbanews.global/article/anthony-edwards-wolves-spurs-game-5-mcdaniels-foul-trouble-may-2026). Visit for full coverage.*
