Monday should have been a relatively standard night for the Minnesota Timberwolves as they hosted the Portland Trail Blazers. They entered the game with a clean injury sheet. There were no major surprises during warmups and no breaking news that might have changed the landscape of the matchup. Things were mostly normal as they lined up for the opening tip, but there was one slight issue: Minnesota's best player wasn't on the floor.
For reasons that were not immediately apparent, Nickeil Alexander-Walker started on Monday for Minnesota while star shooting guard Anthony Edwards was not in the lineup. That gave us the very unusual visual of both teams lining up for the tip with a player, in this case Edwards, already waiting at the scorer's table to check into the game.
Ant got late for the T-Wolves opening tip 😅 pic.twitter.com/q3QXPL7iYI
— Bleacher Report (@BleacherReport) March 5, 2024
So what actually happened here? It's pretty straightforward: Edwards did not make it out to the court in time to be on the floor for the tip. "I lost track of time," he told reporters after the game. Edwards reportedly does the bulk of his pre-game work in the tunnels using resistance bands, which would explain how he could be unaware of the game's impending start.
Things worked out just fine for Minnesota in the end. Edwards played 35 minutes off of the bench, and while he suffered a minor injury in the third quarter, he was back in time for the fourth.
The Timberwolves pulled out a 119-114 win over the Blazers and moved back into the No. 1 seed in the Western Conference. Edwards' gaffe will therefore live on as only a footnote in an otherwise forgettable game.
