The misses keep piling up for Anthony Edwards on true clutch shots

Anthony Edwards sized up the Bucks' Kevin Porter Jr., used the stepback move he's had so much success with this season, and let it fly from three. With the Wolves trailing 103-101, the shot was for the win. But in the latest example of what has been a career-long trend for Edwards, it didn't go in. The ball clanked off the front rim and then the backboard, sealing a disappointing home loss against a Milwaukee team that was without both Giannis Antetokounmpo and Damian Lillard.

ANTHONY EDWARDS DOES NOT DO OVERTIMES 🔥🔥🔥pic.twitter.com/E0hdLpmlK1
— Hater Central (@TheHateCentral) February 13, 2025

Edwards finished Wednesday night's game 10 of 33 from the field and 4 of 17 from deep, with his 23 missed field goals the second-most in franchise history (Kevin Garnett once went 9 for 33 in 2000). But despite his poor shooting, he was fully confident in the shot he took in the final seconds.

“I thought it was going in," Edwards said, via The Athletic's Jon Krawczynski. "Any time the ball leaves my hand, if I can see the rim, I think it’s going in. So I live with everything that happened tonight."

Head coach Chris Finch agreed, saying "that's kind of his shot."

Edwards has had an incredible season for the Wolves. He leads the NBA in three-pointers made, shooting nearly 42 percent on over ten attempts per game — a Steph Curry-like combination of volume and efficiency from deep. He was coming off of three consecutive outings with at least 40 points, which had never been done by a Timberwolves player. At just 23 years old, he's a superstar who was in the Western Conference Finals last year and is headed to his third consecutive All-Star game this weekend.

But the one thing that has, so far, been missing from Edwards' career is the ability to make shots in the absolute biggest moments of games. He is now 2 for 21 on shot attempts to tie a game or take the lead in the final 24 seconds of the fourth quarter or overtime, dating back to a three-pointer that rattled out against the Pacers in his rookie season. His 9.5 make percentage on those shots ranks 243rd out of 246 players who have taken at least 20 such shots since tracking began in 1997.

One of the only makes in that mix came in the 2022 postseason against the Grizzlies, when Edwards hit a corner three to tie Game 5 with three seconds left (only for Ja Morant to hit a game-winning layup on the other end). He's hit clutch shots late in games to put teams away when the Wolves are ahead, but the closest thing he has to a game-winner is the three he hit on Dec. 27 in Houston, which took Minnesota from down two to up one with 23.2 seconds on the clock.

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If you focus on Ant's game-tying or go-ahead shot attempts in the final ten seconds of the fourth quarter or OT, he's just 1 for 18 in his career and 0 for 6 this season. If you limit it to shots to take the lead in the final five seconds, he's 0 for 11. It's still a relatively small sample size, but it's becoming quite odd that a player with his shotmaking ability simply can't buy a last-second game-winner. It's part of the reason why the Wolves have lost an NBA-high 19 clutch games this season.

Anthony Edwards is 2 for 21 in his career on shots to tie or take the lead in the final 24 seconds of the fourth quarter or OT.

1 for 18 (and 0 for 6 this season) if you drop it down to the final 10 seconds.

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— Will Ragatz (@WillRagatz) February 13, 2025

It's fair to not love the shot selection on some of those attempts. When down two points, his instinct seems to always be to go for the three and the kill instead of attacking the basket and trying to tie the game with a shorter shot (or potentially two free throws). In the Bucks game, for example, there's a real argument to be made that he should've tried to beat Porter off the dribble, even with Brook Lopez waiting in the paint. The confidence needed to take that stepback three even after missing 12 threes already that night is admirable, but it also wasn't the only option.

The good news is that Edwards is 23 years old. He's taken 18 shots for the lead or the tie in the final ten seconds of games, and he might end up taking over 100 of those by the time his career is over. There's still all kinds of time for him to turn it around, especially when you have the kind of unbreakable confidence he possesses. When the next clutch situation arises — and there are probably more coming this season — he's not going to shy away from the moment.

"It’s gonna go in," Edwards said. "It just didn’t go in tonight."

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