Minnesota Timberwolves at Golden State Warriors
Date: December 12th, 2025
Time: 9:00 PM CST
Location: Chase Center
Television Coverage: NBA TV, FanDuel Sports Network – North
Radio Coverage: KFAN FM, Wolves App, iHeart Radio
A Gut Check on the Way Back Up the Mountain
There’s a version of this Timberwolves season, an alternate timeline, a Marvel “What If?” episode, where Minnesota marches into next week’s rematch with OKC riding a nine-game winning streak, national pundits reluctantly learning Jaden McDaniels’ name, and Wolves fans convincing
themselves the two-seed is destiny. In that universe, last Monday night’s game against Phoenix is a routine home win, a sentence in the season recap, a game so uneventful you forget it happened.
But this is our universe. This is Timberwolves Reality.
Minnesota walked into Target Center on Monday with the Suns missing Devin Booker, missing Jalen Green, missing half their playmaking, missing, let’s be honest, any real reason to scare a competent NBA team. The Wolves’ biggest threats were Colin Gillespie, Dillon Brooks, and Grayson Allen.
And yet… somehow the Wolves managed to lose. Because of course they did.
This wasn’t just a loss, it was a throwback album, a nostalgic mixtape of all the bad habits the Wolves swear they’ve grown out of. Playing with their food. Lazy perimeter defense. Flat first quarters. “Let’s see if the fourth quarter wants to save us again” energy. This was a Wolves special: turning an otherwise disposable mid-December game into a referendum on their maturity.
Phoenix now joins Denver and the Lakers as the teams to beat Minnesota twice this season. And the Wolves sit at 15–9, with the bad taste of their own sloppiness lingering until tomorrow night. Minnesota will be facing off with the Golden State Warriors, a team the Wolves beat four straight times in last year’s Western Conference Semis, but only after Steph Curry’s hamstring waved the white flag in Game 1.
But this is December, not May. The standings matter. And Minnesota cannot afford to drop games to teams below them if they want any real shot at claiming the No. 2 or No. 3 seed in the West. Houston, Denver, San Antonio, and the Lakers are orbiting above them. The gap is small. The opportunity is large. The margin for Wolves-style nonsense is shrinking.
They get Golden State on Friday. Then Sacramento and Memphis at home. Then OKC rolls into town for the next Big One.
If the Wolves want to be 18–9 heading into their Thunder rematch, a totally reasonable, totally doable target, they’re going to have to stop making life harder on themselves.
KEYS TO THE GAME
1. Get Your Shot Right
There are losses, and then there are “How did we lose by three when we missed every open shot on Earth?” losses. Monday was the latter. The Wolves shot like the rims filed a restraining order.
If Minnesota shoots even mediocre from deep, not good, not great, just mediocre, they walk away with a win over Phoenix. Instead, they shot an abysmal 26%, piling up misfires from every spot on the floor. It happens. Variance is real. Shooters have off nights. But you cannot let an off night become an off week when the next opponent features one of the greatest flamethrowers in NBA history.
2. Find a Way to Slow Down Steph
Steph Curry isn’t the same Steph who ruined the league for a decade, but he’s still… well, Steph. The Wolves know firsthand how much gravity he brings. The Warriors were actively dismantling them in Game 1 last playoffs until Curry limped off with a hamstring injury. From that moment on, Minnesota tore through them like a buzz saw.
Steph is currently listed as a game-time decision, but if he plays? All hands on deck. The mission is simple: Don’t let Steph break your defense so thoroughly that Buddy Hield and Jonathan Kuminga suddenly morph into Klay and Draymond circa 2016.
If the Wolves have to pick their poison, Steph bombs or wide-open shooters, this could get ugly. Golden State may be older, slower, sadder, and more confused than they’ve been in a decade… but Curry still has nostalgia nights in him.
Minnesota can’t let Friday be one.
3. Cool Heads Must Prevail
I said it before the Phoenix game, and I’m cashing the receipts: Minnesota’s biggest threat wasn’t shooting, or rebounding, or even Booker’s absence — it was composure.
Dillon Brooks tried to bait them. That’s his one marketable skill. But what actually cost the Wolves was Rudy Gobert taking the bait from Mark Williams, of all people, by retaliating with a flagrant elbow to Williams’ ribs and getting tossed. While nothing is guaranteed, those final minutes would have looked a whole lot different with Rudy patrolling the paint.
Now comes Draymond Green, the final boss of NBA antagonists.
The Wolves simply can’t fall for the same emotional traps. They don’t need to be zen monks. Just… adults. Basketball adults. And ideally, five of them on the court at all times.
4. Use the Size Advantage
Once the threat of Steph Curry torching the Wolves from beyond the arc disappeared last spring, the Western Conference Semis were all but over. Why? Because Golden State has no real answer for Gobert, Randle, or Naz Reid inside. They still don’t.
Minnesota needs to crash the glass, dominate second-chance points, and punish the Warriors every time they switch small. This is where Randle needs to feast, not drifting to the perimeter, not over-dribbling, but attacking mismatches in the post until someone fouls out or waves a white flag.
This is the Wolves’ biggest advantage. They must treat it like one.
5. Get on the Same Page Before OKC Arrives
This isn’t just about beating Golden State. This is about fixing what’s broken before the Thunder come to town.
We saw it in the Suns game: too many possessions where Ant and Randle look like two incredibly gifted solo acts sharing one microphone. Too many sets where the Wolves run no action, no movement, no rhythm.
The Wolves won four straight last postseason because they played connected basketball with five guys moving as one, trusting each other, amplifying each other.
That version of the Wolves hasn’t shown up consistently over the past two weeks.
They need it back.
They need it now.
Final Thoughts…
There’s no crisis here. 15–9 is fine. It’s workable. It’s in range of everything Minnesota wants to chase this spring.
But Monday felt like a warning shot.
The Wolves want to be a top-three seed. They want a favorable playoff path. To reach any of that, they cannot keep punting games to the league’s B-squads. The Thunder aren’t slowing down. The West isn’t doing them favors. Every win between now and December 19th matters.
Golden State is old, thin, beatable, and holding on by the string of Curry’s greatness.
If the Wolves are serious? If they’re learning? If they’re growing up? They go into the Chase Center, correct Monday’s mistakes, play disciplined basketball, and walk out with win No. 16.
If not?
Well… Wolves fans have seen that movie, too. And it never has a happy ending.
Let’s hope Friday shows us a new chapter.
