The Golden State Warriors were at the Target Center in Minneapolis, MN to face the Minnesota Timberwolves, who have the Western Conference’s worst record at 4-15, but has also been battling through some injuries. There was still anticipation to be had, however, as the vaunted athletic young backcourt of Zach LaVine and Andrew Wiggins, also known as the #BounceBrothers, would take their shot against the Warriors’ famed #SplashBrothers.
David Lee was once again out with a hamstring injury and did not make the two-game road trip to the Midwest.
1ST QUARTER: Bogut Goes Out With Knee Irritation, Offense Crumbles
Andrew Bogut played another huge role in the opening frame, as we’ve seen become the norm this season, but he would soon “exit stage left” with what the Warriors called “right knee irritation”.
The first play of the game went to Bogut, who missed a left baby hook, then got a defensive rebound, but had a silly turnover dribbling the ball up, getting the ball caught at his waist, perhaps caught deciding between going behind-the-back with the next dribble or not.
After Klay Thompson nailed a three-pointer by duking Andrew Wiggins into thinking he’d drive, Bogut blocked a Wiggins attack on the rim, but then missed a shot from under the rim, a lefty airball.
At the 9:32 mark, Bogut checked out of the game and trainer JoHan Wang took a look at a new brace that Bogut was wearing on his right knee. Play continued for a couple of minutes and Bogut soon walked to the locker room. Warriors PR reported it as “right knee irritation”.
In came Festus Ezeli as Bogut’s backup and he made his presence known early, with an immediate dunk from a nice bullet pass from Thompson. Ezeli made an impact on the ball, getting two straight blocked shots on consecutive layup attempts by Shabazz Muhammad, but still had trouble finishing, missing an easy putback off back rim on Thompson’s miss.
Klay then missed again, and as Stephen Curry corralled the offensive rebound, Warriors head coach Steve Kerr called timeout to try and regroup. It was just 9-6, Warriors, with 5:42 to go, and the Dubs were shooting 4-for-15. However, the Timberwolves weren’t faring much better, going a mere 2-for-14.
Curry then managed to go on a personal 6-0 run and Minnesota coach Flip Saunders had to call his own timeout, with the Warriors now up 17-10 with 3:32 to go.
Without Bogut, the Warriors offense was far from clicking, including a play where Curry got doubled, so he lasered a pass to Ezeli, who happened to be setting a screen for Andre Iguodala. Iguodala still retrieved the neglected zinger to his advantage, swooping left-to-right into the lane for a modernized sky hook of sorts.
Curry, who had 3 steals in the first half, got his hands on another pass while playing one-on-one defense, and that turned into another soaring two points for Iguodala, giving Golden State a 21-12 lead with about two minutes to go.
Shaun Livingston would add a steal on Thaddeus Young‘s bad pass, plus tally an assist to a streaking Leandro Barbosa.
The Warriors ended the quarter with a 25-20 lead, but were shooting just 11-for-27 (40.7%) and 1-for-7 from downtown.
2ND QUARTER: SlopFest!
The Timberwolves’ youth reared its head in the second quarter with some sloppy play, but the Warriors also followed suit in perhaps the least visually appealing quarter of basketball the Warriors have played all season.
Despite Marreese Speights starting the quarter with a beautiful reverse tip-in after missing a lefty layup on a nice spin move, then drawing a charge on Wiggins, then Iguodala hitting a jumper, the second frame was filled with messed up plays:
- Speights lost the ball on a bad dribble up top, but Zach LaVine missed a layup on the other end.
- Livingston made a bad entry pass, the Warriors stole the ensuing turnover shortly thereafter, but Iguodala missed a layup. Timberwolves big man Anthony Bennett would put a stamp on the sloppiness with a two-handed slam dunk, but it would only be temporary.
Some of the slop benefitted the Warriors, such as LaVine finding a seam and missing what would have been a spectacular dunk with no Warrior in sight. Thompson, who had entered the game right before that, made him pay with a three-pointer on the other end, seemingly ending the mishaps.
Curry checked back in at 6:02 and Golden State up just 36-34 and immediately got the ball to Ezeli, who was fouled on the slam dunk attempt. He made one of the two freebies. Ezeli would later get a slam putback on a Draymond Green missed floater.
But Green would commit the Warriors tenth turnover of the half, getting a nice defensive rebound as the Warriors were trying to string together some buckets, but his outlet to Curry got intercepted by Corey Brewer, who was fouled.
The ugly first half ended with Curry managing a switch on the high action with Thompson, then, guarded by Young, hitting a step-back one-legged shot going right-to-left, making it 45-35, Warriors, with about two minutes left.
Thompson added a three-pointer with 40.1 seconds remaining and the Dubs went into halftime with a 48-39 lead. Thompson was 3-for-6 from downtown til that point, but the rest of the Warriors were 0-for-8, with Curry at 0-for-4 from beyond the arc.
The Warriors had 11 steals in the slop-fest and Thompson tallied 13 points. Curry added 10. Ezeli totaled 7 rebounds. Wiggins led the ‘Wolves with 9 points and Gorgui Dieng added 8 rebounds.
Stay tuned for the game recap after the 4th quarter buzzer sounds…
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