The Golden State Warriors ended the first half of their season before the All-Star break last night with a win, escaping the East Coast road trip with a nail-biting 94-91 victory over the Minnesota Timberwolves. However, the Warriors didn’t necessarily cure their spell of cold shooting, and head coach Steve Kerr admitted that Golden State was limping into the All-Star break, even jokingly pretending to have a limp while stepping up in front of cameras at the post-game interview scrum.
Check out our Vine account for the highlights of the game.
The Warriors had a 10-point lead at halftime largely driven by the bench unit again, as Leandro Barbosa was his usual spark and Andre Iguodala outshined the bench of the T-wolves.
The starters were sluggish again and nearly lost an 8-point buffer after Stephen Curry and Klay Thompson checked back in. But Curry and Thompson both hit key shots and the game came down to a one-point deficit for Minnesota and three chances for them to take the lead, that were thwarted by a combination of bad offense and good Warriors defense.
First was Nikola Pekovic‘s miss from point-blank range on Andrew Bogut:
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Then was Draymond Green‘s swipe at the ball. The referees initially ruled it Warriors ball, but on the replay, gave it back to the Timberwolves, who then couldn’t get the ball in cleanly and Chase Budinger launched a desperation three-pointer that was after the horn anyways:
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After the game, as he had promised to reporters, Kerr announced that both Klay and James Harden would start the All-Star Game on Sunday.
Curry made a prediction on how Thompson would respond:
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And here was Klay’s actual response:
Yet, the best highlight of the night still belonged to this kid, whose life was changed upon receiving Curry’s autographed, game-worn shoe:
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Here are the local beatwriters’ renditions of the game…
Diamond Leung of the Bay Area News Group:
The Timberwolves’ Nikola Pekovic missed the potential go-ahead shot in the paint with 8.9 seconds left, and needing a 3-pointer to tie the score, Kevin Martin lost the inbounds pass.
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Curry led the Warriors with 25 points but needed 23 field goal attempts to get there. He finished 2 for 10 from 3-point range.
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“Obviously we haven’t been playing our best, but I think everybody has that feeling like they can find whatever they need to be able to attack each game,” Curry said. “And whether it comes out or not, you still have kind of confidence.”
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The Warriors relied on their depth after the Timberwolves went on an 8-0 run that extended into the start of the fourth quarter, cutting the lead to 73-69.
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Marreese Speights, Shaun Livingston, Leandro Barbosa and David Lee all scored on field goals to push the lead back up to 12.
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Still, the Timberwolves would not go away. Ricky Rubio hit a jump shot and then threw a lob to Thaddeus Young for a dunk that cut the lead to 85-83 with 4:15 left. Two Pekovic free throws tied the score at 87 with 2:12 left.
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The Warriors nearly blew a 14-point lead, winning despite committing 15 turnovers and shooting 25.9 percent from beyond the arc.
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“I’ve never seen a group that needed the All-Star break more than this team,” Kerr said. “We’re so out of whack right now. We’re tired, not making our cuts. We’re not getting good shots for each other. The ball has stopped moving. And we need a rest.”
http://www.sfgate.com/warriors/article/Thompson-will-start-in-All-Star-Game-Warriors-6076524.phpRusty Simmons of the San Francisco Chronicle:
After Minnesota (11-42) erased a 14-point, fourth-quarter deficit to tie the game 87-87, Curry and Thompson scored the rest of the Warriors’ points. Curry made a high-arcing floater to make it 89-87 with 1:54 remaining, Thompson hit a three-pointer to give the Warriors a 92-89 lead with 1:22 left, and Curry made a pair of free throws to clinch it with 2.7 ticks on the clock.
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Draymond Green reminded the team at the morning shootaround that the break didn’t officially start until 10:30 p.m., and they didn’t want to be left stewing on a loss for the next nine days.
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Playing with a sprained right ankle, Green had 13 rebounds. Leandro Barbosa scored 10 points off the bench as the Warriors’ reserves outscored Minnesota’s bench 34-14, and Andrew Bogut had 10 points, 10 rebounds and about 10 screens that set up jumpers for Curry and Thompson.
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“We’re on edge a little bit going into the break, which I think is a good thing. We’ll come back ready to work. It’s been a great start to the year. We couldn’t ask for any better,” Bogut said before addressing his backcourt starting in the All-Star Game. “It reflects on all of us positively. They know they can’t do it singlehandedly, but at the same time, they are our two shining lights.”
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