Anthony Edwards was bamboozled during Minnesota’s Game 2 loss in the first round to the Lakers.

The guard finished with 25 points and six assists, but the team’s ball movement stunk and its superstar contributed to the cause. Nothing flowed as easily as it did in a Game 1 victory, and Edwards’ decisiveness took a precipitous dip between the two battles.

“It seemed like every time I caught the ball, (the defense) kind of went like in a zone, in a sense,” Edwards said after the game. “So, it was kind of confusing at times.”

Edwards noted a lack of defensive attention paid to cutters, and while Timberwolves coach Chris Finch said the Lakers didn’t change anything from Game 1 to Game 2, the guard’s befuddlement was clear. He needed answers, and he knew where to look.

“When I go back and watch the film,” Edwards said, “I should be able to find things.”

Indeed, with a little help from a trusted ally.

Minnesota won the next three games of the series to close the Lakers out, with Edwards especially taking center stage as the best player on a star-studded Target Center court for Games 3 and 4. The Wolves are in the second round for consecutive seasons for the first time in franchise history. They’ll open the conference semifinals on Tuesday against either Houston or Golden State.

Against the Lakers, Edwards averaged 26.8 points, 6.2 assists and just 1.2 turnovers. His assist-to-turnover ratio (5.2) is easily the best among all high-usage players in these playoffs.

Chris Hines is Minnesota’s director of player development. Edwards is one of his assigned players. Part of the job entails hours of film work spent between player and coach.

One thing Hines has discovered about Edwards is that the guard is mentally at his best in the dead of the night. So, in the wee hours one morning between Game 2 and Game 3 — Edwards estimates it was around 4 a.m. — the guard received a call from Hines.

“He called me like, ‘You woke?’ ” Edwards recalled. “ ‘I’m seeing stuff.’ ”

They went over a number of things that defined what the Lakers were doing defensively and how Edwards and his teammates could better approach the scheme. Edwards fired off a couple clips to forward Julius Randle.

The wheels were turning. The results were instant.

The last five minutes of Game 3 marked Edwards’ best end-of-game offensive performance of the season. He was a surgeon, dissecting the Lakers’ defense to get good offense for himself and others. Los Angeles was helpless. The play of the night came with Minnesota leading by three with three minutes to play. Edwards started to … well, just let him explain it.

“I think we ran an action to get Luka (Doncic) to switch (onto me), and they didn’t switch. I seen them about to double me, so I just tried to attack Luka,” Edwards said. “I got to the baseline and … since the first game (of the series), they’ve been taking away the corners. I didn’t have to look at the wing, I knew somebody was on the wing, whether it was Naz (Reid) or Donte (DiVincenzo). I really couldn’t even see him. I just threw it to the wing, because I knew somebody was going to be there.”

Sure enough, there was Reid. The forward cashed the open, catch-and-shoot triple to blow the lid off Target Center. It was Edwards who entered the launch code for liftoff.

‘A genius’

Folks used to ask Justin Holland, Edwards’ business manager, who trained the guard on the court for years, “How much more do you think he has in the tank?” Holland always answered that Edwards was only about 60% of the player he could eventually be.

“When he got into the league, he was just a pure athlete, and he was doing well just off his God-given ability, but not really thinking the game and reading the game.” Holland said. “This is exactly what I was talking about: understanding the game, making the right reads.”

He’s cracking new codes on a near nightly basis.

“He has gone from being super frustrated for not being able to play the kind of game he has wanted to play to embracing it, figuring it out in the moment a lot better. It used to take him a while,” Finch said. “Now, I see him directing his teammates where he wants them in certain situations, which is really good, because now he’s thinking a pass or two ahead.”

Early in his rookie season, Edwards was asked where his seemingly advanced “feel” for the game was born.

“I’m smarter than a lot of people think,” he said.

The general public knows Edwards is an insanely competitive, remarkable athlete with high-end leadership skills, a magnetic charisma and sense of humor. It’s possible the latter, along with his often curse-filled vernacular, cloak his intellect.

“But honestly,” Holland said, “if you really dig into his humor, it’s very witty.”

The funniest people know exactly what to say in every set of circumstances. That’s Edwards.

“He’s one of the smartest humans I’ve ever been around,” Holland said.

Holland noted you don’t navigate life the way Edwards has — going from someone who everyone counted out as a kid to the top of the professional sports world — without being brilliant. Hines took it a step further.

“I think he’s a genius,” he said.

Hines likened Edwards’ memory to that of an elephant. The coach will mention something in passing, and weeks later Edwards will not only recount it, but apply it appropriately on the floor or in film.

“He retains a lot of information,” Hines said. “Not only visually, but within readings, within scripts, within player movement and body movement, within repetitive movement on the court. … He can translate information, take it, but still be himself within that.”

Holland believes that’s been a major aid in Edwards’ development.

“He’s one of the few guys that gets better every year, because he picks up things so fast,” Holland said. “(With) his ability to internalize what’s being said to him, him being a visual learner. If he sees something, he can mimic it almost instantly.”

Accept ‘the bad’

Finch has long lauded Edwards’ willingness to be coached, an attribute has helped set the tone for the organization as a whole. For Edwards, it stems from a passion for learning, and his need to be great.

“When he says, ‘I can do everything good,’ he really believes it,” Holland said. “And if he can’t do everything good, then he makes sure that he gets to the point that he’s really good at it. That’s just all the way around in his life.”

From a silly game on his phone to ping pong or spades. Holland noted Edwards was not good at the latter two when he first picked them up. That’s since changed.

“He’s like, ‘I have to master this game,’ ” Holland said.

But the path to earning your black belt in basketball is not clearly defined. Rules and rosters change. Even the things that seem simple at the surface likely have multiple hidden layers beneath. Obstacles on the road to greatness appear all over the place.

Edwards’ initial instinct is to run right through them.

It rarely works, but that’s almost part of Minnesota’s blueprint at this point. On a recent episode of the podcast ‘Pardon My Take,’ Finch noted that while the Wolves have always held Edwards accountable and coached him hard, they’ve also given the guard “an incredible amount of freedom to figure it out.”

“I think that was the only way he was going to learn,” Finch said. “If he went into a super overly structured, patterned environment, I’m not sure that would’ve benefitted him early on. If he went into a system where there was a ton of off-ball movement and cutting and reading, all that stuff, I’m not sure that would’ve benefited him early on.”

Fans have watched in awe as Edwards has defied the boundaries of physics for years. It’s part of his allure, but it can also be his Kryptonite. There are times in prep where Hines will explain “the right play” to Edwards — which is often to get off the ball — and the guard counters by pointing out a sliver of space he believes he can attack.

His physical gifts have generated this off-the-charts confidence that is a massive asset, but can also blur the line between fearless and foolish. Dipping his toe into the bad end of that pool has led to some frustrating performances and even the occasional cringe-worthy postgame comment.

Hines refers to those instances as Edwards “bumping his head” against the wall.

“That’s where he has to say, OK, is he being smart within himself, or is he fighting the game? There’s two sides to it,” Hines said. “And he has lost. He’ll say, ‘I can get through that hole,’ and he can’t do it, and he’s like, ‘(Shoot, coach) was right, get off it early.’ ”

It often is that quick of a revelation.

‘The biggest thing I’ve seen is during ‘down times’ throughout the year of him not necessarily making the right play is he’s learned from it and come back from it,” Wolves guard Donte DiVincenzo said.

Insane, Edwards is not. His failures are rarely repeated over extended periods of time. Some of his biggest leaps are born from struggles.

“The thing about watching film is you got to be willing to accept the bad. I think most people, they only want to watch it when it’s good,” Edwards said. “I want to watch the games when I play bad … like, what could I have done better? And I think that’s the perspective that helped me change as far as my playmaking and seeing the floor. I want to see what I can do better.”

Until his better is the best.

Defying limits

Minnesota’s loose leash with Edwards is two-fold. Yes, it’s provided the room for failure that induces growth. But it’s also helped the Timberwolves redefine what’s possible. Because while Edwards often “bumps his head” when pushing a boundary, there are also moments when he breaks through.

For instance, everything you know about basketball suggests attacking a double team with the dribble is a bad idea. But that pass to Reid for the 3-pointer at the end of Game 3 came after Edwards raced around two defenders and drew in a third opponent before he got off the ball.

In last year’s conference semifinal victory over Denver, it was common practice for Edwards to beat multiple guys to the edge, turn the corner and score at the rim.

“I’m like, ‘Oh (shoot), you are fast that way. OK, cool, so how do we develop that and get it to the highest level?” Hines said. “When it comes to coaching, everybody looks at it like, ‘Hey, he’s a coach, he should have all the answers. He’s the guy.’ (But) players are intelligent, too. The player actually tells you what they see, and then you have to go back and evaluate it.”

The Timberwolves’ offensive process has evolved into a constant collaboration. At halftime of Game 1 against the Lakers, it was Edwards who explained to his teammates and coaches how he wanted the floor spaced to exploit the way Los Angeles was tilting its defense heavily toward Edwards and Randle.

Minnesota scored 35 points in the third quarter to pull away.

“That’s what you want,” Finch said. “It’s got to be a relationship.”

One rooted in trust. Edwards firmly believes Finch, Hines and Co. have a strong understanding of his strengths and weaknesses, and are scheming with his best interests in mind. Meanwhile, the coaching staff is confident Edwards has seen, comprehends and can handle every defensive look in the book.

Hines “loves” the dynamic that has been established between all parties within the organization. The results speak for themselves.

“We’re at that stage now where he’s provided a lot of great feedback on things that he sees, things that he understands now that maybe he didn’t even a year ago, certainly before that,” Finch said. “I’ve always talked about having left and right bumpers for him, and giving him a ton of freedom. I think he thrives in that, and now it’s just (to) keep moving those bumpers out a bit as he grows and understands more about the game.”

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This trade war is no ordinary crisis of the kind that buffeted capitalism periodically in the past few generations. It’s less a storm, Singapore’s deputy premier asserts, and more like “a tidal wave.” When leaders of a successful, trade-dependent nation talk this way, it demands attention.

And yet … for all its power, the analogy doesn’t quite capture the shift in mood since Donald Trump returned to the White House. There’s more to the sense of dislocation than mere tariffs — it’s the undergraduate way they were unveiled and then suspended. The independence of the Federal Reserve faces renewed threats. The bullishness with which U.S. markets were regarded has dissipated; the dollar has been hammered, stocks are down, recession fears are up. And government bonds, not usually prone to sharp fluctuations, have gyrated in troubling ways.

Finance ministers in Washington for International Monetary Fund and World Bank meetings must have felt like they landed on another planet. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent pledged qualified support for the two institutions, which were born under U.S. auspices as World War II neared an end. That this was greeted with relief shows how much crockery has been broken.

The turmoil forces some uncomfortable questions, which, though not entirely new, tended to be considered something for another day. Suddenly, the primacy of the dollar, and even the relative safety of U.S. securities, are open to debate. The wisdom of relying on Washington’s guarantees, in both the economic and diplomatic fields, is getting fresh scrutiny.

“Nothing is long-run anymore,” Markus K. Brunnermeier, a nonresident senior fellow at the Peterson Institute for International Economics, told a symposium last week. “Everybody will just be more flexible.” Assets perceived to be safe now look shaky. To not have a Plan B, other than looking to the U.S. for salvation, as during the 2008 subprime meltdown and the outbreak of COVID-19, is to court poor outcomes.

The gathering’s somber tone seems an important marker for assessing Trump’s second term. In December, as investors were trying to get a handle on how it might differ from his first, Peterson and the Lee Kuan Yew School of Public Policy convened a conference in Singapore. One session posed what then seemed like a provocative question: What would a world without the U.S. look like? It felt a bit premature, and there were no reassuring conclusions. American power wasn’t going away.

If Washington’s credibility is diminished, it’s entirely on the president. He has deliberately taken an ax to a pre-requisite for influence: dependability. The disruption Trump has wrought is testimony to the sway America still has. But this demonstration of clout, deployed to cause harm to both ally and opponent, might contain the seeds of diminishment.

Discussions at last month’s event showed the slippage. Warwick McKibbin, a professor at the Australian National University who sat on the board of the Reserve Bank, floated how much additional protection investors might require to buy Treasuries. Would an extra yield of 100 basis points do the trick?

My attention was really grabbed when the Asian Monetary Fund got a mention. That was a concept I hadn’t heard about in years. The fund was an attempt in the late 1990s to develop a rescue reserve among the region’s governments. The idea was that they not be so dependent for emergency loans on the International Monetary Fund and its biggest shareholder, the U.S. Treasury. Japan was to play a big role and the plan had a number of boosters, including Malaysian leader Mahathir Mohamad. But without American support, the venture foundered.

Its struggles ultimately showed how hard it was to develop a meaningful architecture in the face of U.S. resistance. Hurdles would remain today, not least that the dollar, for all its flaws, has to be part of the arrangement. Even China doesn’t want a divorce. As long as the yuan isn’t traded freely, there will be considerable limits to just how much it will challenge the greenback, assuming Beijing even really wants that.

The world is still the dollar’s, and by implication America’s, to lose. It’s disconcerting that the alternatives are getting a hearing. America isn’t yet alone, though that’s not for want of trying. Singapore, with its huge container port and world class airport, is right to be very worried. In this, the city-state has plenty of company.

Daniel Moss is a Bloomberg Opinion columnist covering Asian economies. Previously, he was executive editor for economics at Bloomberg News.

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St. Paul Police said Saturday they’ve arrested a man on suspicion of murder.

Officers found a woman, who her friends said was in a relationship with the suspect, dead in the couple’s Frogtown home early Friday. Her 2-year-old daughter was also in the home and not harmed.

Police said they located the suspect in Minneapolis. The 34-year-old is being held in the Ramsey County jail.

Officers responded to a request to check a person’s well-being about 5:15 a.m. Friday at a house on Edmund Avenue between Virginia and Farrington streets. A caller reported a woman might have been injured and that a toddler might have been left alone, said Sgt. Toy Vixayvong, a St. Paul police spokesman, said Friday afternoon.

St. Paul Fire Department medics pronounced the 33-year-old woman dead at the scene. Police did not say Friday how she was killed.

The woman and the suspect were the parents of the 2-year-old girl, she told police who responded to a domestic assault in 2023 at the Edmund Avenue house, which they owned together, according to court and property records.

The suspect was twice convicted of domestic assault against the woman, and once convicted of assault against a woman he was previously in a relationship with, Minnesota court records show.

Help for domestic violence in Minnesota is available 24/7 through the Day One hotline by calling 866-223-1111 or texting 612-399-9995.

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The playoffs are a series of games, and a series of important moments that determine which team moves on and — as Minnesota Wild fans know all too well over the past decade — which team is moving out of their locker room for the summer after round one.

The Wild bowed out of the 2025 playoffs after losing to the Vegas Golden Knights in six games, and each of them was defined by a moment that defined the contest, and the ultimate direction of the series.

Game 1 – Play it cool

Vegas entered the playoffs after being whistled for the fewest number of penalties ever in an NHL regular season. It quickly became apparent on Saturday, April 20, that the lack of infractions called on the Golden Knights did not mean they weren’t committing penalty-worthy acts on the ice.

Veteran Wild forward Ryan Hartman took the brunt of the Knights’ physical plays in a 4-2 Vegas win, surviving being tripped, held, boarded and cross checked to the face. He didn’t take the bait and retaliate, and when officials finally penalized Vegas, Minnesota got a needed power play, which saw the first key NHL ice time for rookie defenseman Zeev Buium. Ultimately Minnesota lost the game, but sent a message to Vegas, and to the officials, that regular-season storylines might not hold true in late April.

Game 2 – Flip the script

Scoring the first goal of the game proved to be vitally important in this series, and the Wild got the first four of them in a 5-2 win to even the series. The first 30 minutes on Monday, April 22, were as dominating as Minnesota looked all series, starting with a highlight-reel play by the top-line wingers that didn’t mind playing the role of entertainers just off the legendary Las Vegas Strip.

With the Wild breaking out of their defensive zone in the first period, Matt Boldy sprinted straight up the middle of the rink, and Kirill Kaprizov flipped a long lead pass the caught Boldy perfectly in stride, springing a breakaway and a 1-0 Minnesota lead on the way to a 4-0 advantage midway through the game. Vegas made a push and re-ignited a home crowd that had been stunned into silence, but it was too late, and the Wild headed back to Minnesota owning home ice advantage in the series.

Game 3 – Beat the clock

For once, the propensity of fans to yell “shooooooot!” late in a period paid off, as the Wild took a three-goal lead into the third period and won Game 3 by a 5-2 count to lead the series 2-1. Already leading the game 3-1 and holding off a furious push by the Golden Knights in the second period, the Wild got a power play with less than two minutes before the break.

Hartman knew there was little time left with the puck headed his way and the fans calling for a shot to the net, so before a pass from Marco Rossi reached him, Hartman glanced up at the scoreboard. Seeing less than 5 seconds remaining before the horn, Hartman zipped the puck to the net-front where it glanced off Kaprizov and over the goal line for a 4-1 lead Minnesota would not relinquish. Marcus Foligno made the home crowd roar once more with an empty-net goal to seal the win and the lead in the series.

Game 4 – Painful third

Looking for a 3-1 series lead for the first time in franchise history, the Wild seemed to have everything going their way on the afternoon of Saturday, April 24. They took a 2-1 lead into the third period, and looked to extend their perfect record when leading after 40 minutes — 31-0-0 in the regular season and playoffs. Then Buium made a rookie mistake, tagging Knights forward Mark Stone with an errant high stick, drawing blood and a four-minute penalty.

Minnesota’s penalty killers negated all but eight seconds of the extended man advantage, but Vegas tied the game, took a lead and found the winner in overtime when Ivan Barbashev took advantage of a series of fumbles by the Wild defense around goalie Filip Gustavsson. The series was tied 2-2 heading back to Nevada.

Game 5 – Angry inch

Generations later, Minnesota sports fans still talk about Gary Anderson’s missed field goal that would have sent the Vikings to the Super Bowl in 1999. One wonders if, years from now, Gustav Nyquist’s offside will be mentioned the same way.

Game 5 on Tuesday, April 29, was tied 2-2 in the final two minutes of regulation, and Marc-Andre Fleury was in goal following Gustavsson having to exit the game at the second intermission due to an illness. With under two minutes to play in regulation, Hartman made a rush to the net which concluded with the puck glancing off the forward’s leg and past Vegas goalie Adin Hill for what looked like a critical lead late. A lengthy review revealed that Nyquist had gotten both skates over the blue line maybe an inch ahead of the puck, and the game went to overtime. There, Brett Howden was left uncovered in front of Fleury and scored his third goal of the playoffs to give Vegas a 3-2 win and a 3-2 series lead.

Game 6 – Out of thin air

There was an air of confidence among members of the Wild and their fans on Thursday, May 1, that this series was going back to Vegas for a winner-take-all finale. It was dampened a bit in the first period when Vegas took the lead on a power play after another costly double minor penalty, this time committed by Rossi. Trailing 2-1 in the third period and making a strong push with the support of their fanbase noisily behind them, Stone instead netted the game-winner with less than four minutes remaining, swatting a puck out of the air and past Gustavsson for a two goal Vegas lead with less than four minutes left in regulation.

A pair of goals by Hartman kept things close, but with Gustavsson pulled for an extra attacker, the final seconds ticked away and the Golden Knights advanced to round two with a 3-2 win, taking the series by a 4-2 count.

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