Anthony Edwards, who has been identified as a player with a chance to usurp the Face of the NBA mantle by carrying his Minnesota Timberwolves through the Finals, scored 16 points on 5-of-13 shooting in a crushing Game 4 loss to the Oklahoma City Thunder on Monday night. The dynamic player was once again heavily targeted by the OKC defense and forced to serve as a distributor, not a scorer, turning the ball over five times along the way. This is obviously not an ideal situation for Minnesota and was made worse by Julius Randle's five-point output. Yet Edwards was not ready to go so far as to say he struggled when asked about the performance postgame.

"I don't look at it like I struggled," Edwards said. "They had a good game plan, making us get off the ball. Especially for me, man, it was super in the gaps, I made the right play all night, so I don't really look at it like I struggled. I didn't get enough shots to say I struggled."

This is ultimately a semantic argument that doesn't change the reality of the situation that Edwards was not able to give his team what they needed in the biggest game of the year. It's not necessarily important to scientifically figure out how much the Thunder are responsible for that result and how much blame Edwards needs to shoulder. He is certainly empowered to take more than 13 shots if he believes that is the best rout to winning and it would be surprising to see him have another game where he defers as much with the season on the line.

On Get Up Tuesday morning, Kendrick Perkins agreed with Edwards's assessment.

"He didn't struggle," the analyst said. "They scored 126 points in regulation. They shot 51 percent from the field and 43 percent from three. Their defense struggled. That's what struggled."

There's some validity there. One-hundred twenty-six points in 48 minutes should be enough to win. And it's hard to say Edwards's lack of scoring put them in a weaker position. Yet it's hard to imagine any other superstar getting a passionate defense after failing to shoulder the lion's share of the load in a must-win. And it's entirely possible that two things can be true—the Timberwolves' defense struggled and Edwards putting up 30 points may have have made it easier to win.

There's room for nuance here.

Stephen A. Smith took a different tact, not focusing on the word "struggle" and honing his attention on the idea of what a superstar is and what a superstar does.

Game 5 of this series is Wednesday night at 8:30 p.m. ET.

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This article was originally published on www.si.com as ESPN NBA Analyst Agrees That Anthony Edwards Did Not Struggle In Game 4 Loss.

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