Wolves Fall To Defending Champs

Even without their starting point guard, the Wolves put up a tough fight against the defending NBA champions on Thursday night.

Behind Stephen Curry’s 46 points, the undefeated Golden State Warriors came out the victors against the Ricky Rubio-less Timberwolves in an entertaining Western Conference battle.

“He was decent tonight. He was okay. He’s just so dangerous,” Warriors interim head coach Luke Walton said of Curry. “At any time, he can go on a 6-0, 8-0 run just off of transition and getting a steal and putting it up for three or whatever it is. He’s always in attack mode. He’s definitely playing at an MVP level again right now.”

Golden State started the game on fire and went up 10-0 in the first 88 seconds. At one point midway through the first, Curry was outscoring the Wolves 12-10.

The Warriors finished out the quarter the same way they started, controlling the game 40-27. Golden State had 12 3-point attempts compared to the Wolves’ one.

Zach LaVine, Tayshaun Prince and Andre Miller all had a crack at guarding Curry in first quarter, but after 12 minutes he had 21 points on 6-for-9 shooting and 4-for-5 from deep.  

The Wolves were hanging in there shooting over 52 percent, even though the Warriors were at an astonishing 60 percent from the field and 41 percent from beyond the arc.

Curry’s backup then came in the game and apparently had the same thing for dinner as the reigning league MVP, scoring six quick points on two 3-pointers to give the Warriors a 48-30 lead.

“The thing about it is that you commit so much effort to trying to slow Stephen Curry down – he still gets 45 points,” Wolves head coach Sam Mitchell said. “So then you sit there and you wonder, okay, if you don’t do those things and just try to play conventionally, he might get 60. All you can try to do is take the ball out of his hands as much as possible, put pressure on him and test his shots. I thought our guys were there, he just makes those shots. He makes some tough shots.”

Minnesota had a nice comeback spurt with a 12-0 run, and with seven minutes to go it was a seemingly competitive 50-43 game.

Golden State felt that a seven-point lead wasn’t acceptable and put Draymond Green and Curry back in game. Within a minute of game action the Warriors were up 57-45.

With Klay Thompson starting to catch fire, Golden State kept scoring and led 64-52 with three minutes to go in the half.

Minnesota kept shooting the ball well and tried to keep up with the Warriors ferocious scoring pace, but Golden State finished the half off in champion-like fashion and led 75-63 after two.

The Warriors were 10-for-20 from deep compared to Minnesota’s 1-for-4 from downtown. 

The third quarter got off to an unusual start as Golden State actually missed some shots for a change. With five minutes to go in the quarter, the Wolves trailed 85-70.

It quickly turned back into the Stephen Curry show as he provided a highlight reel three, quickly followed by a breakaway 3-pointer. Minnesota put together a good run to finish off the quarter though to cut the Warriors lead to 97-87 at the end of the third.

Minnesota went with Miller, Kevin Martin, Shabazz Muhammad, Nemanja Bjelica and Gorgui Dieng to start off the fourth quarter, and boy did it work. With Curry on the bench, Minnesota took advantage and cut the deficit to five with eight minutes to go.

In front of a packed and energetic crowd, the Wolves trailed by only six points with six minutes to go. Going blow-for-blow with the defending champions in a high-intensity atmosphere, Minnesota trailed 116-108 with four minutes to go.

The Wolves did everything in their power to try and muster a comeback, but the Warriors were just too much in the end, closing out the game 129-116.

“We just stuck to our principles,” Wiggins said regarding the Wolves’ comeback. “We worked hard, stayed aggressive. Tried to take advantage of some shots. Curry made some tough shots. We played good defense, they just had better offense.”

Miller had a nice game for Minnesota scoring 11 points and dishing out four assists, including this beautiful full-court pass to Shabazz Muhammad.

Towns had yet another big game with 17 points and 11 rebounds in only 30 minutes of play. The double-double machine played well against Andrew Bogut and Festus Ezeli, both of whom are solid rim protectors.

The Wolves will hopefully have a short-memory as they take on the Indiana Pacers in less than 20 hours from now. Tip-off is 6:00 p.m. at Bankers Life Fieldhouse. The non-conference matchup can be seen on Fox Sports North or heard on 830 WCCO radio.