Anthony Edwards’ dunk makes a memory in Timberwolves win over Jazz

SALT LAKE CITY – Anthony Edwards turned the Timberwolves locker room into a bunch of little kids Monday night.

Before he entered the room following the Wolves’ 114-104 victory over the Jazz, guys were swapping stories of their reactions to what they had all just witnessed with 5 minutes, 29 seconds left in the third quarter, what Edwards called the best dunk of his career over Utah forward and bottom portion of the poster John Collins.

“It gives me chills, man,” Edwards said. “Because like, I always dreamed of dunking on somebody like that and watching Vince Carter jump over somebody or like watching T-Mac [Tracy McGrady]. I always dreamed of dunking on somebody like that and that was like my favorite one of all time.”

His teammates just had to share with each other what they were doing and how they all reacted, like classmates who had just witnessed something spectacular in the middle of a school day. They all had to document for each other exactly where they were when this happened. Edwards didn’t even get to react to it in real time, because he dislocated his left middle finger and immediately went back to the locker room to pop it back into place. But his teammates certainly did.

“I nearly came off the bench,” Mike Conley said to teammates and staffers near his stall.

“He couldn’t even move that finger, bro,” Jaden McDaniels said to Conley.

“Y’all wanna see a dead body?” Kyle Anderson said, and Anderson went viral for his reaction, which was like the basketball version of Edvard Munch’s “The Scream.”

Edwards didn’t so much dunk the ball — he never actually touched the rim — as much as throw it down at terminal velocity from above the rim over Collins, who had to leave the game for concussion evaluation after the play was over.

“I was thinking I was gonna miss it because I wasn’t close to the rim,” Edwards said. “But somehow God willed it in for me.”

Edwards calmed momentary concern of his finger by coming back out of the tunnel to complete the three-point play on his way to 32 points on 13-for-23 shooting.

The Wolves needed Edwards again to step up as Naz Reid joined Karl-Anthony Towns (left knee), Rudy Gobert (bruised rib) as injured Timberwolves centers because of a head injury at halftime.

Edwards said “hell yeah” this dunk was better than the dunk he had over Toronto’s Yuta Watanabe his rookie year.

“The Toronto one, everybody expected me to dunk on him,” Edwards said, as if these are routine plays. “This one was crazy.”

But to Edwards, it wasn’t even his best play on this six-game road trip. He stopped short of placing it above his other masterpiece of this trip where his legend grew — the block of Indiana’s Aaron Nesmith to seal a victory over the Pacers on March 7, the moment Edwards said he never jumped so high in his life. He rivaled that Monday.

“When you see him jump, a lot of people don’t continue to go higher. They don’t continue to go forward,” Conley said. “... He’s like a cat — he keeps going forward, lands on his feet.”

The awestruck look on Nickeil Alexander-Walker’s face encapsulated how a lot of his teammates felt.

“”I don’t think people honestly understand what they’ve just seen,” said Alexander-Walker, who scored 13 points. “... I just hope y’all understand. Just walk to a free-throw line, take a step and just try to even grab the mesh, and then you’ll understand what the hell he just did. That was probably the craziest thing I’ve ever witnessed, by far.”

Like the Nesmith block, this dunk was not without a lasting effect on the game. The entire mood of the team picked up, and the Wolves turned a game they once trailed by 16 into a victory behind Edwards, who willed them with his scoring (25 points in the second half), seven points and eight assists. All this after dislocating that finger.

“That’s what a leader does, man,” Conley said. “He’s putting his team on his back. He’s putting us first and he’s putting his health aside and saying hey, it’s an important stretch for us. We need to get these wins.

“... I’m his biggest fan. He won me over again tonight not just the dunk, but dislocating his finger, going back there taping it up, finishing the game how he did. Those are stories I’ll be telling people when I’m old and gray.”

BOXSCORE: Wolves 114, Utah 104

NBA standings

As the locker room emptied, Alexander-Walker had a similar sentiment. He was happy he’ll be able to tell his family he played a key part in the play.

“I’m gonna tell my kids: I passed it. That’s my assist,” Alexander-Walker said. “I can really be like, ‘Oh I was about to shoot it, but I turned it down.’ "

As Alexander-Walker spoke, just he and Edwards remained in the locker room. On the other side of the room, Edwards was watching a few replays of the dunk on his phone and loudly exclaimed, “Got ‘eeeeeemmm.”

Gobert spoke with the media before the game and said he would try to make his return “soon.”

“Right now, the level of pain is getting better every day, but still not good enough for me to be able to be myself and help the team,” Gobert said. “Which is never fun, but hopefully it’s just a matter of days.”

Gobert was also asked if he would miss a playoff game for the birth of his child, who is due later this spring. He said he would.

“It’s been clear for me from the beginning,” he said.