Game Recap: Timberwolves 117, Warriors 110
The last time the Golden State Warriors lost three consecutive playoff games, they did it on the NBA’s biggest stage: The 2016 Finals, when Cleveland clawed back from a 3-1 series deficit to win its franchise’s lone championship.
Now that the Warriors have done it again, this might be the biggest stage they get this spring. The Minnesota Timberwolves’ 117-110 victory Monday at Chase Center in San Francisco boosted them to a 3-1 lead in the teams’ Western Conference semifinals and has the Warriors on the brink of elimination.
Now, as then, the turnaround was triggered by an absent Warrior. In 2016, it was Draymond Green, reaching his flagrant/technical foul limit in the league’s points system, essentially suspending himself from Game 5 to spark the Cavaliers’ comeback. This time it is Stephen Curry’s left hamstring, which he strained in the second quarter of Game 1 and has nursed along since.
The Timberwolves were 10 points worse than Golden State in the 13 minutes Curry logged in the opener but are 35 points better in the other 179. They’ll get another 48 in Game 5 on Wednesday back in Minneapolis (9:30 p.m. ET, TNT), probably without Curry again. Here are five takeaways from Monday’s Game 4.
1. Wolves get halftime gut-check
Golden State’s defense, smothering for most of Games 1 and 3, looked downright impenetrable deep in the second quarter of Game 4. Coach Steve Kerr had thrown up a zone and the Wolves looked as if Norman Dale was on their sideline to help them thwart it. They slipped behind by five points and needed Anthony Edwards’ Curryesque 30-foot 3-pointer at the horn to trail 60-58 at the break.
That’s when Minnesota coach Chris Finch, backed up by Edwards, called out their team for acting as amateurish as they looked.
“Coach came in and just said, ‘We’re playing like we already won the series,’ pretty much. I didn’t like that,” Edwards revealed afterward. “I told ’em, ‘We’ve only got two wins. I’ve never seen a series end 2-1. … We’re playing like they’re going to lay down.’”
All that changed in a convulsive third quarter. It was 68-68 with eight minutes left when Edwards got into the lane, where his team previously had feared to tread, for an and-one layup. A pair of Warriors offensive fouls got answered by two Minnesota 3-pointers. Then Edwards hit another.
In less than five minutes, the Wolves had strung together 17 unanswered points for an 85-68 lead. By the period’s end, they outscored Golden State 39-17 and flipped the defensive dominance, holding the Warriors to 7-of-19 shooting and zero 3-pointers in six tries.
2. ‘Game 4 Anthony’ looks like a thing
Anthony Edwards scores 30 points on 11-for-21 shooting to lead the Timberwolves to a 3-1 series lead over the Warriors.
Edwards scored 16 points in that third quarter as Minnesota ran up its 97-77 lead, then five more in the fourth. He finished with 30, adding to a nice little legacy in the fourth game of playoff series.
Before Monday, the Wolves’ explosive young star had averaged 35.7 points, 7.2 rebounds and 5.8 assists in six career Game 4s.
It’s almost as if Edwards feels his way through playoff games and series in the early going, then pounces. Among the legends he and the Wolves have left on the side of the postseason road the past two years: Kevin Durant, Nikola Jokić, LeBron James and Luka Dončić. Now, perhaps and with an asterisk, Curry.
The 2024-25 version of “Ant,” at 23 and wrapping up his fifth season, is the best yet, a confounding combo of rim attacks and 3-point prowess.
“There is no one [better],” said Green, the Warriors’ defensive ace. “He is one of one.”
3. No joy for Jimmy
“Playoff Jimmy” looked more like the “Joyless Jimmy” who fussed his way out of Miami after some listless performances and team suspensions in January. By taking only nine shots and earning just five free throws in Game 4, he fell short on the kind of stage Golden State acquired him for in February. Overall, he finished with 14 points, six rebounds and three assists in 34 minutes.
Yes, the Warriors wanted Butler as a counter-punch to Curry’s Mr. Outside, a Mr. Inside to get into the lane, slow the pace, get layups and mid-range jumpers and run up his free throws and foes’ foul totals. Butler, 35, at least played in Game 3 like the so-called “alpha” he bills himself as, taking 26 shots and scoring 33 points.
But this time he was just another of the Warriors’ betas, and he wound up with a game-worst rating of minus-30. That means Golden State was 23 points better than the Wolves in the 13:38 Butler sat.
4. Wolves played with their food in 4th
The home team made noise early in the final quarter, cutting Minnesota’s fat lead to 16 points three times in the first five minutes. After a Minnesota flurry got it to 112-91, Kerr yanked his starters in favor of end-of-benchers for the final 4:59.
Welp, those guys got it to 112-98 with 2:51 to go, then to 10 at 1:02, and finally to seven. Finch stuck with his main guys, who gave back 14 points by hitting only four shots and committing 12 turnovers in the quarter.
The message was clear: Golden State wasn’t lying down either, regardless of Curry’s status. Minutes saved on their rotation players, minutes expended by the Wolves. This is not over yet.
5. Hamstring heard ’round the NBA Wednesday
If the Warriors are going to become only the 14th team in NBA history to prevail from a 3-1 playoff series deficit — the official count is 275-13 — it would seem to require Curry’s return. His one-week evaluation will come on Wednesday in Minneapolis, the eighth day after he suffered the strain in Game 1.
Most media folks have speculated that a Game 6 return might be more likely, since the schedule has a rare three-day gap after Game 5. It’s possible that Curry, who has been rehabbing and shooting throughout, could play in Game 5 — if he’s deemed healthy. Just facing elimination would not be enough for him or the team to risk hurting that left leg more seriously or suffering a compensating injury.
Curry will play, Green said, “if he’s in a place where he can play. We don’t need Superman. If he can, but there’s no pressure.”
There is urgency on the Timberwolves to close out as far away from a healed Curry as they can.
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Steve Aschburner has written about the NBA since 1980. You can e-mail him here, find his archive here and follow him on X.
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