SAN FRANCISCO – Should the Warriors find their way into the NBA playoffs, the Western Conference team that looms as their personal boogeyman was the one they saw Friday night.
The Warriors couldn’t beat the Minnesota Timberwolves in four tries last season and the first meeting between the teams this season, a 107-90 loss, pushes that streak to five consecutive losses.
Golden State still doesn’t have antidotes to the myriad problems posed by the Timberwolves, who hibernated through the first month of the season but are among the NBA’s hottest teams.
The Warriors took an early 15-8 lead, watched it disappear in 90 seconds and spent the next 39 minutes facing deficits that ranged as high as 23.
“We fell down 19 in the second quarter, and then had a good finish to the second and a great run in the third to cut it to three,” coach Steve Kerr said. “We felt like we were right where we needed to be. But it got away from us again early in that fourth quarter.”
Although the Warriors have a dramatically different roster, and Minnesota also made a couple of significant changes, the result is the same.
The Timberwolves still have an answer for nearly every problem the Warriors pose. Minnesota has a legitimate star in Anthony Edwards but so much more. Rudy Gobert is a deterrent at the rim, Jaden McDaniels is a terrific wing defender and still holds his own at both ends.
With their size, agility, athleticism and patience, the Wolves seem to live for the “privilege” of using defense to torture opponents before strangling them.
With Jonathan Kuminga struggling (13 points, 6-of-15 shooting from the field, minus-7 in 29 minutes) and Andrew Wiggins gritting his teeth until his right ankle gave out in the third quarter, the Warriors were reduced to hoping Stephen Curry could muster enough offense to keep them afloat.
Though that normally is a good bet, Curry is trying to ignore the stubborn soreness afflicting both knees. His 32 minutes illustrate the vigor of his heart, his 6-of-17 shooting tells the story of his aching body – exacerbated by waves of defenders coming his way.
Golden State’s offense is, at its best, a symphony of constant movement, players darting in multiple directions and the ball whipping about to find somebody open. The Timberwolves don’t allow that. This is a team that had held its last three opponents to an average of 84 points.
The Warriors managed 15 points in the second quarter, on 5-of-20 shooting, and found only 18 points in the fourth quarter on 8-of-20. They were 3-of-18 from deep in those two defining quarters.
Then there were the turnovers. The deeper in the game, the more there were, with 13 coming in the second half.
A Chase Center crowd rarely starts lining up for the exits early, but that was the case when Anthony Edwards drained a midrange jumper to give the Timberwolves a 15-point lead with 5:32 remaining.
The Warriors surely know that a 15-point lead can be erased in a few minutes, but most of the folks in the building had seen enough to know these Warriors would not accomplish such a comeback against those Timberwolves.
“They’ve got a lot of long athletes,” Kerr said. “They’ve got a good puzzle. The puzzle fits for them really well. They’ve got wing defenders, on-ball defenders with Conley and McDaniels, and Gobert at the rim. It’s a well-constructed, well coached team.”
It’s not that Golden State won’t ever beat the Timberwolves. It’s just that as the teams are currently constructed, it’s a massive challenge that would require a spectacular performance by the coaching staff and several players. The Warriors are too competitive to want to duck another team. But if there were a squad in the West that is designed to give them fits, it’s the Timberwolves.
A seven-game playoff series would be ominous. So, too, will the next game. The teams meet again on Sunday. Same place, at 5:30 p.m. PT.
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