Anthony Edwards puts NBA officials on blast: 'Cheatin a** refs'

Yesterday's slate featured a battle among the best in the west, as the Minnesota Timberwolves took on the Oklahoma City Thunder. This was the fourth and final meeting of the regular season between the two top Western Conference teams. To give you an idea of how this game unfolded, one of the first things that Anthony Edwards said in his postgame interview was, "I'm going to take the fine," and, yeah, that basically sums it up. 

Ultimately, the Timberwolves were able to capitalize on their size inside and beat the Thunder 107-101 to tie the regular season series at 2-2. Edwards led the way for Minnesota with 27 points on 10-for-20 shooting. However, he had a problem with the calls, or lackthereof.

Edwards told ESPN:

"We didn't get no calls as a team. I got fouled multiple times, and I'm walking up to the ref telling him, 'Hey, can you watch this?' They just shaking their head. Yeah. And then soon somebody come down from their team and get bumped, it's a foul."

Players and coaches can exaggerate, but box scores don't. Stats like these tell a story, and here's how this one went. Shai Gilgeous-Alexander got to the free-throw line 16 times in the game, converting 15-16 attempts. Edwards, by comparison, only shot four free throws. After the final whistle blew, Edwards made it a point to criticize the game's officials, or in his words, those "cheating a** refs."

During his on-court postgame interview, Anthony Edwards, as previously mentioned, made one thing abundantly clear. "I'm going to take the fine," Edwards nodded, "because the refs did not give us no calls tonight. We had to play through every bump, every grab...I don't know. I don't know how we won tonight."

In addition to crediting his teammates and coaches, Edwards also praised his opponent. "Shai a tough test man. He got game, a lot of game. He hard to stop. Jaden and Rudy did a great job of handling the paint." The Timberwolves now occupy the top spot in the Western Conference and have the second-highest winning percentage in the NBA.

Interestingly enough, Edwards had something to say about the officiating the last time the Timberwolves faced the Thunder. Edwards kept hammering the officials even in the locker room after the game. He joked with ESPN, "We was playing 8-on-5."

Karl Anthony-Towns described yesterday's game as a "championship fight" because of the physicality and intensity. With no more games scheduled between the two teams in the regular season, fans will have to wait and see if the two teams can meet in the playoffs. Needless to say this budding rivalry between two rising franchises is certainly worth keeping an eye on.