Red-hot Anthony Edwards has a chance to make history against Bucks

Riding the hottest scoring stretch of his five-year NBA career, Timberwolves star Anthony Edwards has a chance to make history in Wednesday's night's game against the Giannis-less Milwaukee Bucks at Target Center.

Over his last three games, Edwards has scored 49 points against the Bulls, 41 against the Rockets, and 44 in Monday's loss to the Cavaliers (after missing one game due to injury). He's the first player in Wolves history and the first player in the NBA this season to score 40 in three consecutive outings. If Edwards does it again tonight, he'd become just the 12th player in league history — and the fifth player this century — to hit that mark in four straight regular season games.

As you'd expect, the list of players who have done that is a star-studded one. Pre-2000, the seven players to score 40 at least four times in a row were George Mikan, Wilt Chamberlain, Elgin Baylor, Rick Barry, Bob McAdoo, Michael Jordan, and Allen Iverson. Since the turn of the century, only Kobe Bryant, Russell Westbrook, James Harden, and Donovan Mitchell have joined the club. For what it's worth, Jerry West, Bernard King, Jordan, and Jalen Brunson (last year) have done it in the playoffs. But even if you include the postseason, that's only 15 different players in 79 NBA seasons.

It hasn't just been the last three games; Edwards' scoring has been on another level for over a month now. Beginning with a 53-point explosion in Detroit on Jan. 4, Edwards has averaged 32.9 points per game over his last 19 outings. He's shooting nearly 46 percent from the field and 45 percent from three during that span, adding 6.1 rebounds and 5.3 assists. Only Thunder MVP candidate Shai Gilgeous-Alexander (35.4 PPG) has a higher scoring average over that time period.

Notably, the start of Ant's scoring spree came just a few days after TNT's Charles Barkley said he thinks Edwards had "regressed" this season. That was hardly true at the time, but it may have created some motivation for a player who has basically been in inferno mode ever since, scoring at least 28 points in 14 of the last 19 games. The Wolves have gone 12-7 in those contests, with four of the losses coming by one or two points.

It's been remarkable to watch the 23-year-old Edwards put the ball in the basket lately. He still has the athleticism to get to the rim and elevate for explosive finishes, but he's also turned into Steph Curry this season. Edwards leads the NBA with 220 three-pointers made, hitting over 42 percent on very high volume (one single 3PA shy of ten attempts per game). He's on pace to make 338 threes if he plays in the final 28 games of the season, which would be fifth in NBA history behind three Curry seasons and one from James Harden.

Wolves-Bucks will tip off shortly after 7 p.m. central time.

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