ORACLE ARENA, OAKLAND, CA — This is a continuation of the halftime recap of the Minnesota Timberwolves at the Golden State Warriors.
The Warriors took a 55-46 lead at halftime.
3rd Quarter – Flurry!
Andrew Bogut was active early on as he made an early hook shot on Stephen Curry’s 11th assist.
Curry finally made a field goal, stealing a bad pass by Zach LaVine and pulling up while shedding Andrew Wiggins after reaching the arc:
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Klay Thompson added a triple from the left wing after Harrison Barnes supplied the screen and Bogut the delivery…
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…then Bogut added a one-handed putback dunk of a missed Draymond Green attack from the left corner.
Klay followed that up with a finger roll, Wiggins turned the ball right back after getting a steal, and Green got a putback slam of a Thompson missed triple. Timberwolves head coach Sam Mitchell called timeout with 6:33 remaining as the Warriors took a 69-52 lead.
Both teams traded buckets out of the timeout, with Karl Anthony-Towns getting a fade, Green a layup, Wiggins a three, Barnes his 19th and 20th points on a layup assisted by Curry, his 13th, and a jumper by Wiggins. With 4:05 to play, the Warriors held a 75-60 lead as head coach Steve Kerr called a timeout.
Steph then went on another trademark flurry, hitting a three assisted by Bogut, then after Leandro Barbosa shot a brick at the shotclock buzzer, Wiggins scored a layup but Curry came right back with a one-dribble launch from the right wing over Wiggins.
Wiggins came back with a pretty jumper over Andre Iguodala, but Curry answered with a pull-up over Tyus Jones:
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Steph missed another try to end the quarter, but Iguodala got the rebound and dished to Marreese Speights for a strong take.
The Wolves came back with a Jones-to-Gorgui Deng layup and the Warriors held an 86-78 lead after three periods. Curry had 14 points, while Klay added 17 and Barnes still led the way with 20. Bogut upped his totals to 10 points and 11 rebounds.
4th Quarter- Young Hungry Wolves Force OT
The Warriors got off to a rocky start to the being the final frame, as Shabazz Muhammad hit two free throws to bring his point total to 27 on the night, then after a Speights bucket, Zach LaVine hit a three, Barnes got blocked by Nemanja Bjelica, and Jones capitalized with a layup in the lane past Speights.
With 10:00 remaining, the Wolves cut the Warriors’ lead to 88-85 and Kerr burned another timeout.
Speights got a turnaround jumper out of the timeout, but Deng got an uncontested dunk as Klay and Speights miscommunicated on LaVine, and LaVine followed that up by tapping the ball out of Green’s hands in the post and scoring a reverse layup on the other end, with Thompson lucky not get called for an “and-one”.
Things took a turn for the worst as Shaun Livingston got a pass with one second on the shotclock deflected out of bounds, then committed a turnover on the inbound, but Bjelica made a bad screen, and Klay finally ended the scoring drought sneaking backdoor on the left baseline, assisted by Draymond.
Deng made a horrible entry pass that Thompson stole, and Klay hit a long two from the right corner, assisted by Bogut. Mitchell took another timeout as the Warriors took a 94-89 lead with 7:14 to go.
Two Wiggins FTs and a Shabazz Muhammad three tied the game back at 94-all, but Klay Thompson created an open reverse layup by cutting on the baseline to give the Warriors the lead back 96-94.
Livingston added a turnaround to push the lead back to 4 before the Wolves and Warriors traded a couple baskets. A Klay fadeaway two made it 102-98 with 5:05 to play.
Steph got a switch onto Towns, crossed over to his left and then switched hands mid-air to finish with touch off the backboard around Andrew Wiggins.
Bogut bought a pump fake from Towns who hit two free throws to make it 104-100 with 3:48 to play, then Lavine 3 fading right corner 104-103 with 3:17 left.
After a number of deflections, Andre came up with a huge layup to put the Dubs back up 106-103.
The following Timberwolves possession Towns seemed to draw Curry’s 5th foul en route to a potentially game-tying and-1 score, but a review waved off the score and reversed the call to an offensive foul, as Curry’s feet were outside the arc. That gave the ball back to the Warriors up 3 with 1:09 to play.
Draymond forced a pass to Curry, resulting in a turnover and Wiggins steal, who pushed ahead before a hard foul from Andre on Muhammad. He split FTs to make it 106-104 with 53 seconds left.
Draymond was then called for a travel on an up and under, and the Wolves capitalized on their following possession as Wiggins got into the paint, reversed pivoted and scored at the rim to tie it up at 106.
On the final Warriors, possession, Rubio committed the foul to give with 8.1 seconds left, and good pressure on the in bounds forced the Warriors to pass around before time ran out without getting up a shot.
Overtime – Another Warriors Streak Ends
The Warriors didn’t open up the overtime period any better than the 4th, with a turnover followed by a foul. Wiggins made both FTs to put the Wolves up 108-106.
Curry then put up a wild airball shot over Towns who defended well, leading to a jumper for Wiggins and a 110-106 Minnesota lead.
Curry drove to the basket but the ball was deflected. Eventually rotated to Shaun for pull up and-1 to make it 110-109 with 3:41 to play.
Curry then got a steal, but Klay turned it back over to Zach Lavine trying to drive to the basket with his left.
Another Wiggins jumper pushed the lead back 112-109. Klay missed a three and Muhammad got on the break by himself before a foul by Draymond, his sixth. Muhammad made both 114-109 2:34
Steph then missed a long two point jumper. They blitzed Wiggins, forcing him to pass to a missed Rubio jumper.
Klay drove the lane, leaving a drop off pass for a Livingston dunk to make it 114-111 with 1:46 to play in OT, but Bogut couldn’t keep up with Towns, who drove right around him for an easy layup to push it back to 116-111 Wolves.
In transition, Curry pushed the ball and finished with the left hand and a foul on Towns to close the gap back to just two points with 1:19 to play after hitting the free throw.
But once again, the Warriors gave it right back with a foul committed by Barnes on a Towns lay-in. The Wolves’ big man missed the additional FT, but they still led 118-114 with 59 seconds.
Curry missed a 3 and the Warriors began the foul game. Both Wiggins and and Towns split FTs, broken up by another scoreless Warriors possession, then Wiggins knocked down a pair to push the lead to 122-114.
Klay hit a late three to cut the lead back to 5, but Muhammad put in two FTs to finish off the Warriors second home loss in three games, 124-117.
The loss was the end of a 114 game streak in which the Warriors had won every game they led by 15 or more. They led the Timberwolves by as many as 17 in the 3rd quarter.
Thompson led the Warriors with 28 points on 12-22 shooting, and Curry added 21 points and 15 assists, but on just 7-25 from the field.
Harrison Barnes had 20, but just 2 points in the second half and Shaun Livingston went 6-6 for 14 points.
For Minnesota, Muhammad led all scorers with 35, with Andrew Wiggins adding 32 and Towns pitching in 20 points and 12 rebounds.
The Warriors committed 23 turnovers to the Wolves’ 17 and shot just 8 free throws compared to 36 for Minnesota.
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