Anthony Edwards was seeing double everywhere he turned. All by design as the Nuggets doubled the attention on the Timberwolves’ standout guard.

It was yet another wrinkle for the Nuggets, who held Edwards to 18 points — 15 below his average in this series — in their 112-97 victory over the Timberwolves on Tuesday night in Game 5.

“We knew we had to do something different with Anthony Edwards. That guy is just a one-man wrecking crew,” Nuggets coach Michael Malone said. “We trapped him. We double-teamed him. We flew around behind him.”

They exhausted him, too.

Because in addition to feeling the constant pressure to carry the offensive load, Edwards was applying the pressure on defense in an effort to make things difficult for Nuggets guard Jamal Murray.

“Getting in the best shape of my life,” cracked Edwards, whose team has dropped three in a row in the series. “So it’s fun.”

The second-seeded Nuggets dared anyone not named Edwards to beat them as they took a 3-2 lead in the Western Conference semifinal series with a chance to close out the third-seeded Timberwolves on Thursday night in Minneapolis. The strategy worked, in part, because Anthony had fewer clear looks at the basket. The Timberwolves were also missing Mike Conley, out with soreness in his right Achilles.

“They’re just playing better than us right now,” Edwards said. “They’re playing harder than us. ... Everything’s going their way. They’ve got the momentum. We’ve got to figure out a way to shift it back our way.”

Karl-Anthony Towns had a solid night despite appearing to tweak his left knee in the first half, finishing with 23 points. Rudy Gobert, too, who had 18 points and 11 rebounds. But by keeping Edwards in check on 5-of-15 shooting, the Nuggets limited the damage and built a lead that stretched to as many as 18 points.

With so much attention surrounding him, Edwards resorted to passing and finished with a team-high nine assists. But it was his instant offense the Timberwolves were in desperate need of late in the game. He had four points in the fourth quarter.

“We’ve got to do a better job making it easier for him,” Towns said of Edwards.

As for the Nuggets’ top star, NBA MVP Nikola Jokic scored 40 points. He also had 13 assists and no turnovers.

“He’s the best player in NBA,” Edwards said. “I’ve got to give him his flowers. He was that guy tonight.”

Brunson big again: Jalen Brunson scored 44 points, and the second-seeded Knicks moved a win away from their first Eastern Conference finals trip since 2000 by beating the sixth-seeded Pacers 121-91 in Game 5 on Tuesday night in New York.

The Knicks rebounded from a blowout loss on Sunday and guaranteed themselves at least one more game at Madison Square Garden in front of their roaring fans who have been aching to see big games in late spring again.