ORACLE ARENA, OAKLAND, CA — The Minnesota Timberwolves were in town to face the Golden State Warriors at Oracle. The Warriors, after dropping two straight games at Staples Center, were looking to not only break their two-game losing streak but also get back on track. The last time they dropped two straight was right before the 16-game winning streak.
Festus Ezeli was out again with a sprained ankle and so was Andrew Bogut with his knee.
The Timberwolves, ravaged by injuries to their starting lineup this season, were once again without Ricky Rubio (sprained left ankle), Kevin Martin (fractured right wrist), and Nikola Pekovic (right ankle injury).
1ST QUARTER: Curry Toys With Timberpups
Marreese Speights got the start again tonight and came out with a typical #MoBuckets display, getting his first jumper to fall. Then, on a curl by Klay Thompson delivered by Harrison Barnes, Speights got a double-clutch two-handed dunk with Thompson offering the bounce pass on Speights’ cut.
Speights also had a strong, shoulder-leaning bankshot go in after Thaddeus Young turned it over in the paint, Harrison Barnes retrieved the ball and led the attack, and found Stephen Curry on the right elbow momentarily open for a three. But Curry darted the ball inside to the cutting Speights, who finished with the right hand.
Speights got another dunk after Timberwolves center Gorgui Dieng mishandled the ball and Thompson spun around for the dextrous steal, then led the break, getting a reverse layup blocked by Young. But Speights was there for the dunk putback, which tied the game at 15-15 at the first mandatory timeout with 6:18 to go in the first frame.
Some other items of note:
- Curry tied up Timberwolves rookie sensation Andrew Wiggins for a jump ball and actually won the tip.
- Thompson chalked up his first “turnover of lunacy” rather early once again, as he got a defensive rebound from a missed Zach Lavine three-point try then, seeing Curry race down the court, but seeing him too late, cocked to throw the touchdown pass, deciding against it at the last moment, and traveling with the ball as a result.
- Young seemed to have his way with Draymond Green biting on Young’s up-fakes, but Thaddeus never really capitalized on it.
- Wiggins displayed his prowess as a post-up player, turning around with a lot of strength and with ease on the decent defense by Thompson on two occasions.
- Andre Iguodala and David Lee checked in for Barnes and Speights, respectively, at about the six-minute mark, even though Speights had just converted his second dunk. It was apparent that head coach Steve Kerr was going with a set rotation.
The Warriors had a couple highlights after that. Lee got an easy bucket as Green got him a wrap-around pass, with Curry starting the “tic-tac-toe” connection, putting the Warriors up, 17-15, with 5:49 to go:
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Curry played give-and-go with Lee, then toyed with the young Timberwolves, like a submarine sneaking up no a target to be torpedo’ed:
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The Warriors continued to play loose against the young “Timberpups”, as Green got a steal, then spun around with his dribble to start the break, finding Curry on the left side. Curry gave an extra big bounce to create the separation from the chasing Timberwolves and laid the ball up perfectly with the left hand, giving the Warriors a 23-19 lead with 3:50 to play in the quarter.
After Mo Williams missed a trey, Iguodala got the rebound and found a streaking Curry on the left side. Curry faked as if he were going to take the ball hard to the rim and stepped back for a splash from three-point distance:
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Yet despite these seemingly “varsity-versus-junior-varsity” plays by the Warriors, Golden State was still making plays that were not sharp. Curry made an up-pass to Lee going right-to-left behind-the-back that was too far for Lee to reach and ended up as a backcourt violation, Lee got a shots inside the paint blocked by the foam of the bottom of the backboard, then the rim itself, Iguodala made a bad pass that has been increasingly more on the regular, and Shaun Livingston had a turnover where he simply dribbled off his own knee.
Still, the Warriors took a 31-23 lead into the second frame. Curry, who played all 12 minutes, led all scorers with 10 points on 4-for-7 field, 2-for-4 downtown, to go along with 3 assists, while Speights added 8 points on 4-for-5 shooting. Lee also had 8 points.
2ND QUARTER:
The Warriors started out the second quarter with a nice dunk by Livingston, assisted by Speights, out of a timeout:
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Just like in the first quarter, however, the Warriors made some nice plays, but also botched up some other ones. Chase Budinger made a bad pass and Iguodala stole it, only to throw the ensuing fastbreak alley-oop too high to Justin Holiday, resulting in the ball going over the stanchion.
Lavine threw the ball away on an entry pass, with Green stealing it, but on the fastbreak the other way, Curry threw the ball behind Barnes and the Timberwolves got it back.
At the end of the quarter, Curry got a switch with big man Jeff Adrien guarding him, but couldn’t convert on the mismatch as Curry fell short on a jumper in front of Adrien. Holiday followed that up on the other end fouling Budinger on a three-pointer with 1.9 seconds remaining, but Budinger only made one of three free throws.
But it was Thompson supplying the ten-point margin at halftime as he drew a foul on Wiggins going backdoor on him with the nice pass from Green, side-stepped for a three-pointer that made it 47-36 with 4:56 to play in the half, got a lefty layup, and stole the ball and got the assist to Curry on this nice reverse:
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Thompson got another three to put Golden State up, 56-43, with 1:30 to go, as the Warriors played 5-on-4 after Dieng twisted his ankle and was left in the backcourt writhing in pain as Lavine went baseline and dunked it.lavine dunk, klay 3 as dieng writhes in pain left ankle 56-43 1:30
At the break, it was Warriors 58, Timberwolves 48. Thompson led all scorers with 16 points on 6-for-12 field, 3-for-7 downtown. Curry added 14 points on 5-for-12 shooting, 2-for-6 beyond the arc, and 4 assists. Speights and Lee added 10 points apiece as Green led the hustle-stat department with 5 rebounds, 4 steals, and 3 assists. The Warriors had 19 assists on 21 made buckets, but also committed 10 turnovers. Shabazz Muhammad led Minnesota with 9 points, while Lavine tallied 8 points and 7 assists.
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