Minnesota Timberwolves star Anthony Edwards‘ technical foul against the Brooklyn Nets on Friday has been rescinded, the NBA announced Saturday. Had the technical foul held up after the league office reviewed it, Edwards would have been suspended for the Timberwolves’ regular-season finale against the Utah Jazz on Sunday.
Edwards entered the game against Brooklyn with 17 techs on the season. In late February, after getting ejected during a game against the Los Angeles Lakers, he was suspended for their next game, which also happened to be against the Jazz. When a player is assessed his 16th tech, an automatic one-game suspension is triggered. Upon reaching this threshold, the player faces an additional one-game suspension for every two technicals that follow.
In the second quarter against the Nets, Edwards picked up a foul while pressuring guard Keon Johnson beyond the 3-point line. Edwards complained about the call, and official Ray Acosta immediately issued the tech.
As far as post-whistle reactions go, this was pretty minor.
“I tried to play good defense, they called a foul and I said, ‘Where was the effing foul?’ and he gave me a tech,” Edwards told reporters. “I hope they look at it and rescind it, so I can play in a couple days.”
He added: “I’m praying they rescind it, I mean, ’cause I don’t feel like it should have been a tech. But me and Ray got a good relationship, so we talked it out after the fact. But I still don’t think feel like I deserved a tech for just that little gesture.”
Minnesota’s game against the Jazz could be extremely consequential. Ahead of the final day of the regular season, the team is seventh in the Western Conference, but it could finish as high as fourth or as low as eighth. The Wolves are among four teams that have either 32 or 33 losses.
The table above is complicated, but here’s the important part for Edwards and the Wolves: If they beat Utah — a team that has nothing to play for but, with its lottery odds set, no incentive to lose, either — then they will clinch a top-six seed and avoid the play-in.
