Anthony Edwards dropped 45 points on opening night against the Miami Heat, and the box score isn’t even the wildest part of his Wednesday for the Timberwolves. That makes it his second career 40-point season opener, and he joins Michael Jordan and Wilt Chamberlain as the only players in NBA history to do it twice. If he’s still outside your top-5 MVP conversation after that, you’re watching reputations instead of games.
Let’s get the stat right, because it’s already getting mangled online. Nobody matched a Jordan or Wilt box score on some random Wednesday in Miami. Edwards’ first 40-point opener came a few seasons back, 41 points against Portland. He went out Wednesday and did it again — 45 points, 9-of-17 from three, 10 rebounds, three assists in roughly 33 minutes, in a true road game against the Heat.
That’s not a box score. That’s a resume entry.
Nine made threes on seventeen attempts isn’t a hot streak. That’s a guy who decided before tip that opening night in Miami was going to double as his own highlight reel, then made the math behave. Ten boards and three assists mean he didn’t need to pad it empty-calorie style either, and the Timberwolves walked out of Miami with a 131-106 win over a Heat team playing its own opener.
https://x.com/espn/status/2113092929371681139
I’m not even mad about the stat padding.
Somebody on Miami’s bench decided to chirp during the game, which is a bold swing against a man who just hung 45 on your team. Edwards talked trash to the Heat bench right back once it was over, telling reporters, “if you gonna talk shit, keep talkin shit. Don’t get quiet.” He said afterward he didn’t even catch the guy’s name.
I have never once in my life kept quiet while winning, and I respect a man who operates the same way with 45 points already in the bank.
https://x.com/HaterReport/status/2113085233377481200
He wasn’t the only Timberwolf turning heads on debut night. LaMelo Ball dropped 21 points in his own Minnesota premiere, going 7-of-17 from the field, 5-of-13 from three, six assists, two steals, and between the two of them, Minnesota’s backcourt shot a combined 14-of-30 from deep in one game. That’s the backcourt pairing with LaMelo Ball people spent all summer wondering about, and night one answered back immediately.
https://x.com/NBAPerformances/status/2113091713594274043
None of this needed an asterisk, but I’ll give you the context anyway. Miami was breaking in its own new era Wednesday too, with Giannis Antetokounmpo making his Heat debut next to Bam Adebayo and a defense that had never shared a live possession before tipoff. A blowout against a team still figuring out its spacing is the easiest setting in the league to pad a stat line, and one night doesn’t settle the Timberwolves’ bigger-picture outlook either.
Fine. Put the parenthetical next to the final score if it makes you feel better.
Two 40-point openers now sit next to Wilt and Jordan on Edwards’ resume, and he turned opening night into the trailer for his whole season. That’s the real shape of the Anthony Edwards MVP conversation, and it isn’t asking anyone’s permission to be taken seriously — starting with whoever was on that Heat bench.
