ATLANTA – As Anthony Edwards was finishing his pregame warmup Monday with his usual set of halfcourt shots, he got word from his cameraman and content creator Dontre’ McCain to look behind him at the opposite baseline.

Edwards glanced and gave a quick smile as he saw his grandfather, Ben Edwards, sitting there watching his grandson warm up.

After hoisting a few more shots, Edwards came running over, smiling from ear to ear as he greeted his grandfather, who was attending an NBA game of Anthony’s for the first time, and the first game of any kind Anthony has played in since high school. They chatted for a few minutes before the game and got to hang out near the Wolves locker room afterward.

“This is my first NBA game with my granddad,” Anthony said after the Wolves lost to the Hawks 117-104. “Sad I ain’t get the W for him, but I’m just happy he was here. My heart was warm when I seen him. That was great.”

Ben is 82, and he still lives in the same house that housed Anthony, his grandmother Shirley, mother Yvette and his three siblings for a while when Anthony was an adolescent and teenager growing up southwest of downtown Atlanta.

Monday was the first time Ben had seen his grandson in two years, he said.

“Hey man, it’s about time,” Ben said. “I’m 82, I’ll be 83 in February. I have to go see him at least once.”

This past summer, Ben reconnected with Dana Watkins, a longtime mentor to Edwards and his former AAU coach, and Watkins put the bug in Ben’s ear that he should get out to see Edwards while he still could. They kept Ben’s arrival a surprise from Anthony until pregame warmups.

“This man right here, talked to me like somebody who had some sense,” Ben Edwards said of Watkins. “I believe in him, and he just does what he says he’ll do.”

Watkins spent the last several days making arrangements with other Edwards associates, the Hawks and the Wolves to get courtside seats under one of the baskets. He had let Anthony know a few weeks ago that he was trying to get Ben to come to the game, but Edwards didn’t think it would happen. His grandfather didn’t like to leave the house much.

“He just like me, man,” Anthony said. “I wanna go to the house, be in my game room, play my [video] game. He wanna go sit on his couch, his little chair and watch his TV shows.”

As Edwards grew up, his mother and grandmother attended a lot of his football games and AAU games out of state before they died when he was 13. His grandfather came to games occasionally and he saw Edwards some in high school, but Anthony’s high school games at Holy Spirit, in the Buckhead section of Northern Atlanta, was a long commute with traffic.

Monday marked Ben’s first time seeing in person what his grandson has become as a basketball player, the same Anthony who scribbled on the walls of his grandparents’ house that he wanted to be a McDonald’s All-American one day.

Ever since they reconnected over the summer, Watkins said Ben was steadfast he was coming.

“You’re 82 years old, have a grandkid who’s able to ascend where he’s ascending, if you ain’t going to see it now, when you gonna see it?” Watkins said. “It’s about the now. Life’s about the now, taking advantage of it.”

After Anthony greeted him before the game, Ben said, “It feels good, man.”

He said he advised Anthony to go “kick that [butt]. It’d make me real happy.”

Anthony didn’t quite do that on a night he scored just 16 points on 7-for-20 shooting with five turnovers. He did have a thunderous dunk at the hoop near where Ben was sitting, and Watkins said Ben’s reaction to that was “it’s about time.” When they met before the game, several cameras caught the interaction between Ben, Anthony and Watkins. At one point, Ben turned to Anthony and said he wanted the pictures everyone was taking printed out.

After the game, Anthony was still smiling in the locker room even after the loss as he talked about Ben. He joked that Ben “ain’t go no swag,” but he did see an important quality of himself that he took from Ben.

“I think I got my being down to Earth. Just being cool under all circumstances,” Anthony said. “I think I got that from him. Like he never let any circumstance get him out of who he is and stuff like that. Just being cool, calm and collected through everything.”

Timberwolves at Dallas Mavericks

Wednesday, 2:30 p.m. ET, American Airlines Center

Wolves update: The Wolves have lost three straight and travel to Dallas for the first time since the Western Conference finals last postseason. They previously lost to Dallas 120-114 in Minnesota on Oct. 29. Anthony Edwards is 20-for-56 over his last three games with eight turnovers. Julius Randle is 18-for-45 over his last three games with 16 turnovers.

Mavericks update: Dallas has won 10 of its past 12 games and Luka Doncic returned from a two-game absence to score 27 points in Dallas’ win over the Mavericks on Monday. Doncic is averaging 28.9 points, 8.6 rebounds and 8.2 assists per game. Dallas has the fourth-most efficient offense and 11th-rated defense. Kyrie Irving is averaging 23.5 points on 46% 3-point shooting.

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