Sports / Wednesday night at Kaseya Center was supposed to belong to Giannis Antetokounmpo, making his Miami Heat debut after the June blockbuster trade that ended his Milwaukee era. Instead it belonged to Anthony Edwards, who scored 45 points, hit nine 3-pointers — one more than the entire Heat team — and carried the Minnesota Timberwolves to a 131-106 rout. In doing so, Edwards became just the third player in NBA history with multiple 40-point games in season openers. The other two are Wilt Chamberlain and Michael Jordan.
The Anthony Edwards 45 points performance was the story of opening week. Edwards shot 16-for-29 from the floor and 9-for-17 from 3-point range, added 10 rebounds, and checked out with 3:51 remaining and Minnesota leading by 28 — his 45 the most ever scored by a Timberwolves player in a season opener, and his 125th career game with at least 30 points. Antetokounmpo was excellent in defeat: 35 points on 13-for-19 shooting and six rebounds, 21 of them in the first half. It was not close to enough.
A duel for a half, a rout after it
For twenty-four minutes, this was the heavyweight opener the schedule-makers dreamed about. Antetokounmpo scored Miami's first eight points and poured in 14 in the first quarter, hearing MVP chants from his new home crowd before the first television timeout. Edwards matched him almost shot for shot. Minnesota opened 11-for-14 from the floor and led 27-19 after eight minutes, but Miami pushed back in the second quarter and briefly took a 50-49 lead on a 3-pointer by Bobby Portis Jr. Each star had 21 points at halftime. The difference was everything around them: Minnesota carried a 69-59 lead into the break after Terrence Shannon Jr. hit consecutive corner 3s, Edwards turned a steal into a dunk, and LaMelo Ball — making his own Timberwolves debut — scored on a drive and added two free throws.
The third quarter settled it. A 23-7 run stretching across halftime pushed the lead to 78-61, and later Minnesota ripped off a 45-23 burst in which Edwards scored 18 while Miami missed 11 of 12 attempts from deep. The lead reached 30. The raw geometry of the game was brutal: Minnesota made 21 3-pointers to Miami's eight, outscoring the Heat 63-24 from beyond the arc, and won the rebounding battle 52-34. Edwards outscored the entire Heat roster from 3-point range by himself, nine makes to eight.
The club Edwards just joined
Here is the company. Wilt Chamberlain scored at least 40 in four consecutive season openers, from 1959 through 1962. Michael Jordan did it three times — 1986, 1989 and 1995. And now Anthony Edwards has done it twice: 41 points at Portland in last season's opener, 45 in Miami on Wednesday. Nobody else in league history has multiple 40-point openers. According to the NBA, Edwards is also the first player ever to record at least 45 points, 10 rebounds and five 3-pointers in a season opener — the kind of stat line that only becomes possible when a volume scorer is also, suddenly, a high-efficiency one.
Context matters here. Chamberlain's openers came in an era of 48-minute games and triple-digit possessions as a matter of routine; Jordan's came as he was redefining what a guard could carry. Edwards' came against a Miami team built, specifically, to contend — on the road, in the other superstar's debut, in a building waiting to crown someone else. He scored in every quarter (12, nine, 15 and nine by one tally), had 36 before the fourth quarter began, and still sat the final 3:51. Fifty was there if Minnesota had needed it. Minnesota did not need it.
Why this matters: the Ball effect is already visible
The most important number in this game might not be 45. It might be five — the 3-pointers LaMelo Ball hit in his Timberwolves debut, on his way to 21 points and six assists. Minnesota's bet in acquiring Ball was simple: give Edwards a genuine secondary creator, and defences can no longer load up on him the way they did through last spring's playoff grind. One game is one game, but the early evidence was loud. Ball opened his Minnesota account with a 3 from near the midcourt logo, pushed pace in transition, and afterwards talked about his new backcourt partner like a man who has found his level: "Ultimate competitor. Being with him every day, it's really amazing. It all goes together." Ball's own summary of the night was simpler: "It felt great being with the brothers — and obviously we won, so great night." Jaden McDaniels added 17, Ayo Dosunmu 16, Jonathan Kuminga 12, and Rudy Gobert took 15 rebounds. Four of Minnesota's five starters scored in double figures. That is what a contender's opener looks like.
Giannis was brilliant. Miami, around him, was not
It would be wrong to read this as a failed debut. Antetokounmpo, who played only 36 games last season through calf injuries, was the best version of himself for a half: 21 points before the break, a two-handed dunk followed by animated gestures toward Edwards, a Euro-step dunk finished by throwing the ball to himself in transition. He shot 13-for-19 for the night. But the flaws were equally visible. He recorded just one assist as teammates missed the catch-and-shoot looks he created. He airballed a free throw. He was assessed a flagrant foul for elbowing Shannon in the head on a drive, and he fouled out in the fourth quarter. Bam Adebayo scored 15, Andrew Wiggins and Davion Mitchell 11 apiece — Mitchell added 10 assists — and Klay Thompson scored 10 in his own Miami debut. None of it survived contact with Minnesota's shooting: the Heat went 8-for-33 from deep as a team.
"I feel good when the team plays good," Antetokounmpo said. "When things are clicking. When we play with rhythm. When we play with great pace. That's when I feel good." By that standard, opening night gave him about twenty minutes of feeling good. Miami has now dropped three consecutive season openers, only the third such skid in franchise history — a trivia point, but the kind that lingers when a franchise has just bet its future on a 31-year-old superstar.
What happens next
Both teams play Friday: Minnesota visits Orlando, and Miami hosts Detroit. The Magic game is the more revealing test for the Timberwolves — a long, physical, defence-first team is exactly the profile that has bothered Edwards in the past, and whether the Ball-Edwards backcourt keeps producing clean looks against elite length will tell us more than a rout of a disorganised Miami defence. For the Heat, the questions are structural, not personal: the shooting around Antetokounmpo (8-for-33 from three is a roster problem, not a rhythm problem), the flagrant-and-foul-out finish, and whether Erik Spoelstra leans harder into Mitchell's playmaking to raise that single assist. One opener proves nothing over 82 games. But openers do set terms. On Wednesday, Anthony Edwards walked into another superstar's coronation and left with a piece of history that, until now, belonged only to Wilt Chamberlain and Michael Jordan. That is a term worth setting.
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Sources: Reuters / Field Level Media game report, October 22, 2026; Associated Press (Tim Reynolds) via TSN and Sportsnet, October 21, 2026; USA Today Heat report, October 21, 2026; NBA game statistics via Sportradar; Sportsnet courtside report (Ball and Antetokounmpo postgame quotes).