Like a wolf prowling the brush, Anthony Edwards is stalking the established NBA elite. Catching them, too. Toppled Kevin Durant and the Suns in the first round of the 2024 playoffs. Bagged LeBron James, along with his Lakers, in the first round of the 2025 playoffs.
And now Edwards is down to the last member of the league’s royal trio.
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WATCH HEREHe’s coming for Stephen Curry and, by extension, the Warriors.
The hunt begins Tuesday night when Curry and the Warriors enter Target Center in downtown Minneapolis to confront Edwards and the Timberwolves in Game 1 of the Western Conference semifinals.
Though the Curry and Edwards won’t be assigned to each other, their elevated status makes them the focus of the series. Whomever performs best puts his team in position to advance to the conference finals.
“Watched a little bit of their first round series,” Curry said. “(Edwards) is playing with supreme confidence. We know they had their run last year, and their new look with (Julius) Randle.
“But it’s the same Ant, who's trying to take strides and with every opportunity he gets. And it's going to be a tough challenge, we know. We’re going to have to send multiple bodies at him and figure out a game plan to go at him.”
Golden State Warriors
Like Durant and James, Curry is a richly decorated superstar who entered the NBA when Edwards was in elementary school and become one of the three most recognized faces of the league. They have been where Edwards wants to go, and Edwards’ goal is to go through them.
Warriors coach Steve Kerr, who coached Edwards on Team USA’s gold-medal winning team in the 2024 Paris Olympics, is not surprised the youngster targets the veterans.
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SIGN UP “No, not at all,” Kerr said Monday. “That's the kind of confidence he has. The charisma. I watched him in Paris. Every day after practice, he and Kevin would go at it. LeBron and Steph. They'd have these shooting contests, and he's right in the middle of it, talking all kinds of trash.”
That was the first Olympics for Edwards, and the banter was light but pointed. The past is worthy of respect, but the future comes closer each minute. James is 40, Curry 37, Durant 36. Edwards, in his fifth NBA season, is 23 and wants it now. He lets the vets know.
“It's such a big part of who he is, his love for the game, his love for competition,” Kerr recalled. “But it's all in a really good, spirited way. There's never anything malicious about the trash talk. He loves what he does, he loves to compete and the guys around him really enjoyed that the banter too, because it's always in a humorous fashion.”
They were teammates then, representing the United States in international competition. They’re opponents now, representing their respective NBA teams in the playoffs. Not much humor in that environment.
In dispatching the Lakers, Edwards averaged 26.8 points per game on 42 percent shooting from the field, including 33.3 percent from deep. The production was high, but the efficiency was lower than what he posted in the regular season. Yet it was enough to help the No. 6 seed Timberwolves win the series in five games.
“There's a reason the Wolves are where they are now,” Kerr said. “They've done a great job as an organization, put together a really good roster. Chris (Finch) has done a fantastic job as coach. But they are where they are because Ant is a superstar. You have to have a guy like that to build a great team.
The Warriors have such a guy in Curry, in his 16th season, with no end in sight. The seventh-seeded Warriors needed seven games to shed the No. 2-seed Houston Rockets, with Curry having a series that was solid but unexceptional by his standard: 24.0 points per game, 41.7 percent shooting from the field., 39.2 percent from beyond the arc.
If Minnesota wins the series, no matter how Edwards plays, it will represent a changing of the guard. Today, closing the book of yesterday.
If the Warriors get the best of the Timberwolves, it will be a triumph for Curry, no matter his statistics. He will be that rare, targeted prey to escape the stalker. He will be able to hold high the flag that was taken from Durant and James.
After the Timberwolves ousted James and the Lakers last week, adidas posted a photo of their client, Edwards, with a caption directed at Nike-partner LeBron: “The King Slayer.”
At the end of the Warriors-Timberwolves series, Ant would like another: “The Steph Slayer.”
Let the hunt begin.
