GP2 leads Warriors to victory by suffocating Edwards in crucial time originally appeared on NBC Sports Bay Area

SAN FRANCISCO – With the Warriors leading by six with less than 10 minutes left, the Minnesota Timberwolves called upon their fiery leader. Anthony Edwards strolled to the scorer’s table with one mission: to get his team to the finish line.

The Warriors immediately countered and called out Gary Payton II. The defensive specialist had only one goal: not to let Edwards take his team home.

Payton made it to the platinum level. GP2 dove into Edwards’ jersey and generated much of the pressure that stifled Minnesota’s offense down the stretch Sunday night and allowed the Warriors to emerge from Chase Center with a rousing 114-106 victory.

“They were aggressive against him,” Timberwolves coach Chris Finch said of the Payton-led defense against Edwards.

This aggression was heightened to the optimum level when it needed to be. The Warriors had seen Edwards’ work two nights earlier, when he shot them to 30 points – 11 in the fourth quarter – in a 107-90 win. They didn’t want to see an encore.

“Ant is an incredible player,” Warriors coach Steve Kerr said of Edwards. “By the end of the third quarter he had it rolling. At this point you just have to put your best defender on him. You don’t really want to send a double team because you have other guys knocking down shots. . . We just wanted Gary to get him right in front, give him a little help in the gaps and try to make things tight without causing any double teams.”

With Payton as the primary defender, Edwards picked his spots and was effective for three quarters. He scored 24 points on 9 of 12 shooting, including 4 of 5 from long range. Payton’s main impact was forcing turnovers as Edwards scored four through three quarters.

However, Edwards’ fourth quarter is something he would like to forget. Payton drained a steal 24 seconds after coming in and again with 1:01 left, leading to a 3-pointer from Buddy Hield, giving the Warriors a 112-106 lead. In addition to the two late turnovers, Edwards was 1 of 7 from the field in the fourth.

“Probably tougher than Friday night,” Payton said, recalling Edwards’ heroics. “With a guy like him, you can’t let him get comfortable early. I just try to disrupt him and make him work earlier in the game. Just try to keep wearing him down, wearing him down. He made shots. Then, at the end, buckle up and play.”

With the game on the line, GP2 was embedded in Edward’s hair like fresh dye. The Warriors followed that lead, blocking four shots in the fourth period – with Payton recording one – and limiting the Timberwolves to 16 points on 6 of 21 (28.6 percent) shooting from the field.

Payton scored two points in the quarter by shooting 1 of 4 from the field, but neither could stop Minnesota from making a move more effectively.

“He just has a way of figuring it out,” Stephen Curry said. “And the last five minutes of tonight. . . He played well the whole game, but in the last five minutes he just tried to show Anthony Edwards as much as he could, that’s him.”

With Andrew Wiggins sidelined with a right ankle impingement injury, Kerr changed the lineup. In addition to Draymond Green, Jonathan Kuminga and Curry, Buddy Hield received his first start of the season. Payton was in the starting lineup for the third time.

“Without Wiggs, we wanted to put Gary on Ant and immediately put our best defender on him,” Kerr said. “Gary also gets along very well with Steph historically. And then we felt like we needed to get Buddy going, and the best way to do that is to get him out there with this group.”

The decision to launch GP2 started with a suggestion from Pabail Sidhu, the team’s analytics and innovation guru. In addition to the normally strong numbers when Payton and Curry share the court, there was also this Edwards guy.

When asked about the key to the fourth quarter that devastated the Timberwolves, Kerr didn’t hesitate.

“Gary. Also the help behind him,” he said. “Draymond and JK both made some good plays at the rim. Draymond’s help allows Gary to keep the pressure on Edwards and trust that he has help behind him. Gary was just brilliant tonight.”

The 23-year-old Edwards is one of the NBA’s up-and-coming faces. Spritely, athletic enough to compete in any dunk contest and leads the league in 3-pointers. He was great for three quarters.

The fourth, however, belonged to Payton, a basketball vagabond until he landed with the Warriors three years ago at age 29. And one who has not yet seen his last start of the season.

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