For most of Wednesday night’s game in Minneapolis, the Golden State Warriors looked like the team that trounced the Denver Nuggets Monday. In the last four minutes, they looked like the team that choked away the second game of the season to the Memphis Grizzlies.
In the end, a series of turnovers, dropped passes, missed free throws, and inattentive three-point defense didn’t quite doom the Warriors, who held on for a 119-114 win over the Minnesota Timberwolves behind Steph Curry’s 44 points, He scored
the last of these on a pair of meaningless free throws with 0.1 seconds on the clock, which closed out a perfect 16-for-6 night from the free throw line. He’s made all 39 of his freebies to start the season.
The Warriors led for the final 38 minutes of the game, maintaining a double-digit lead for mot of the second half and going up 11 points after a Curry picked off a LaMelo Ball pass and turned it into a Yaxel Lendeborg dunk with 2:16 to play.
Jonathan Kuminga made a three-point play, the Warriors missed some shots, then Ayo Dosunmu followed up a layup and a three-pointer by picking Curry’s pocket down four points. It took a heroic block by De’Anthony Melton on Dosunmu at the rim and two bricked threes from Jaden McDaniels before the Warriors could finally relax.
Lendeborg scored 26 points and grabbed eight rebounds, while former Warrior Kuminga led the Wolves with 20 points on 7-for-15 shooting, a 3-for-5 effort from deep, along with five assists and zero turnovers. McDaniels had 19 points and eight rebounds and Terrence Shannon, Jr. put up 19 off the bench, shooting 8-for-10 on free throws.
The Timberwolves were playing without Anthony Edwards, who had knee surgery that should keep him out until at least December. They struggled to find offense, particularly from Ball, who shot 3-for-11 and had almost as many turnovers (6) as points (8). Rudy Gobert was a total non-factor, perhaps because the Warriors devoted only 20 minutes to traditional centers. The Stifle Tower finished with a single point, four rebounds, and zero blocks and clearly did not appreciate having to defend against Curry.
The Warriors started to pull away in the second quarter after a signature Curry Flurry. From an 184-second stretch between 9:11 and 6:07 of the second quarter, Curry made five three-pointers, scored 17 points, and delivered an assist, a run that took Golden State from a one-point advantage to a 13-point lead. He also demonstrated a curling-style follow-through after the fourth triple, perhaps paying tribute to Canadian Curry fans while playing up north in Minneapolis.
Curry finished the first half with 23 points and Lendeborg had 14, already drawing double teams in his 5th NBA game. Draymond Green had five assists before the break, the Warriors outrebounded the Timberwolves by three, and Will Richard was the top reserve, playing 11 first-half minutes and logging a +13, grabbing two offensive rebounds on pure hustle. The Warriors took a 64-48 lead into the locker room.
This happened late in the third, but we would be remiss not to highlight Richard’s acrobatic layup here.
The strong second quarter, which the Warriors won, 34-25, came despite a lot of fouling from the road team. The Timberwolves got in the bonus with 7:21 left in the quarter but it didn’t hurt the Dubs that much. Minnesota went 4-for-6 from the foul line while in the bonus, with two trips to the line on shooting fouls. The Warriors reserves managed to extend the lead by a point while Curry rested for three minutes.
They kept up their furious pace to start the second half. Curry hit another three and got to the line for four free throws as the Warriors began a 9-2 run. He also slid out of bounds in a vain attempt to chase down a rebound, missing a highlight play by roughly 15% of an ass cheek.
Green blocked his arch-nemesis, Rudy Gobert, then took over mopping duties during a stoppage in play. Perhaps that was a response to the sloppy play on both sides, full of wild early shots and overly frenetic play, which induced Steve Kerr to call timeout simply because Golden State’s lead dropped to 21 points.
Things tightened up at the end of the third quarter as the Timberwolves got hot from three-point range. The Warriors got a bunch of layups thanks to slick passing from Brandin Podziemski, but the Wolves answered with threes, including some difficult running threes from Bones Hyland. The quarter ended 93-81, after Curry sank two more foul shots, racking up what felt like a stunning nine free throws in three quarters. Do the refs know who he is???
For the fourth quarter, the Warriors gassed up the Minivan. Georges Niang missed a layup, hustled 94 feet for a steal, saved the ball, and created an uncontested fast break for Curry, who unselfishly left it for an easy Gary Payton II jam.
Niang started in place of Gui Santos, who sat with a sore knee. The veteran had seven points, three rebounds, two assists, and two steals, an absolutely adequate performance that left him +5 on the game.
What went badly? Lendeborg had seven turnovers. Green had eight rebounds and six assists, but made some bad fouls late and couldn’t handle a Curry dumpoff that would have been an easy game-icing layup in the final seconds. The team’s three-point shooting went missing in the second half, with Curry going 1-for-6 and the rest of the team going 0-for-4, while committing 11 of their 16 turnovers after halftime. Podz only took five shots.
Still, the Warriors won two games in a row, and two road games at that! The 18-year veteran and the rookie are both playing great, Melton and his bad thumbs are shooting well again, and this team just might have a decent bench after all.
And perhaps best off all with Luka Doncic and Austin Reaves coming to down, the NBA has actually started calling fouls for flopping. No B.S. Association action! It’s fan-tastic!
