Beaten by the Wolves, the Celtics were not used to such pressure

There were three minutes left in overtime when Jayson Tatum decided to attack Anthony Edwards, on a one-on-one at the head of the racket. The Wolves fullback had been playing with a sword of Damocles over his head for a while: he had picked up his fifth foul at the start of the fourth quarter.

Despite the threat of being sanctioned a sixth time and being excluded, the leader of Team USA did not give up. He signed a solid defense on the man, even causing a jump ball with his opponent from the Celtics, who fell to the ground. “ I had to show him that I could defend », formulates the rear.

Risk ? No, because he believes that the referees “ did not want » see him come out. “ That’s how I saw things. I told Finchy (editor’s note: Chris Finch, his coach) : ‘If they take me out, it’s their fault.’ I had a feeling that’s not what they wanted. So I continued to play aggressively », testifies Anthony Edwards, taken up by the Star Tribune.

Strategy paid off on this sequence since he was able to recover the leather, then pass it to Mike Conley in transition. The leader’s 3-pointer allowed the Wolves to regain the lead, before the guard continued with three baskets in a row, including two from mid-distance.

“ Their defensive toughness has sometimes surpassed our offensive solidity »

His big defense on Jayson Tatum was the starting point of this victorious “run” (9-0). The Wolves ended up winning in overtime, inflicting the Celtics with their first defeat of the season after six games.

“ It was very nice. It was a very competitive match, our opponents will always get the best out of us. I find that their defensive toughness has sometimes surpassed our offensive solidity », notes Joe Mazzulla, quoted by The Athletic.

While the Celtics’ attack has been running at full speed since the start of the season, Jrue Holiday (12 points on 4/16 shots) and his team have had a lot more difficulty expressing themselves in this part. If Jayson Tatum (32 points at 12/22) and Jaylen Brown (26 points at 10/21) remained within their standards, Boston, which maintains the best “Offensive Rating” in the league (125 points on average over 100 possessions) , was held to a 39% success rate overall. Their lowest rate so far this season.

“ They were the first team to put this type of pressure on us, we have to be ready for the next match. So they did a good job of trying to force us not to follow our basic systems. There are a lot of things we like to do at the end of the match that we haven’t been able to put together », Regrets Jaylen Brown, according to whom this defensive pressure, embodied by Jaden McDaniels on the wings, made them lose a little of their composure.

“ We don’t let anyone push us around »

“ I think we’re super tough. We don’t let anyone push us around. We are always physical on defense. I feel like we’re a tough team. Very tough », Repeats Jaden McDaniels, one of the house defensive specialists with Rudy Gobert. The latter says it again: the Wolves have the tools to shine in defense.

“ From the first day of training camp, we sat down together and decided we wanted to be a defensive team. And I’m really proud of the way, the maturity we showed and the way we take every possession personally. This is the mark of a great defensive team », greets the three-time best defender of the year.

Anthony Edwards, whose team has returned to the leading group in the West (4v-2d), believes that he “ it’s still early » to draw conclusions. He adds : ” We won a good match today, but it’s still early. We still have a lot of games left to play. We’re trying to move forward. »