Hungry like the Wolf.
The Minnesota Timberwolves were not messing around and took full advantage of the Golden State Warriors playing without their superstar Steph Curry to even their Western Conference semifinals series against the Warriors with a wire-to-wire 117-93 win in Game 2. This was the Timberwolves third such victory in their playoff history and the first since 2004.
“We looked a lot more like ourselves,” coach Chris Finch said.
The Timberwolves could not have scripted the start of the game any better, getting off to a 13-0 lead as it took Golden State nearly five minutes to score their first points on a basket by Jimmy Butler. The lead rapidly ballooned to 22 points midway through the second quarter.
Draymond Green became the headline of one of the most heated and contentious moments in the game, as the former Defensive Player of the Year was hit with a dead ball technical foul in the second quarter for a physical altercation with Timberwolves big man Naz Reid.
The referees went to the monitor and reviewed the incident, and they decided to call a technical foul on Green for hitting Reid on the head with an elbow. The Warriors 13-year veteran clearly was frustrated with the decision, which led to a heated reaction from him. This is his fifth technical foul of the playoffs, two short of an automatic one-game suspension.
Curry felt he needed to get involved as Green gave the referees a piece of his mind. Curry got off the bench in an effort to try and calm Green down, which did not really have much of an effect on Green and his angered state.
The Warriors trimmed the deficit to seven in the third quarter on a Jonathan Kuminga three, 65-58, Minnesota’s smallest lead since the opening minute of the game but then went on a four-and-a-half-minute drought that diminished and ended any realistic hopes of a win.
“We made a really spirited run, got it to seven, and then we just kind of lost a little bit of composure,” Warriors coach Steve Kerr said, according to Reuters.
“We turned it over right out of that timeout a couple of times and gave up a couple threes where we lost connection defensively. But we learned a lot, and I think this game will help us figure out how to move forward.”
Julius Randle spearheaded the Timberwolves to victory with a game-high 24 points to go with seven rebounds and 11 assists. Not bad for a guy who people thought could not perform in the playoffs.
Star guard Anthony Edwards, who had to be assisted to the locker room after getting his ankle stepped on in the second quarter, but later returned, and Nickeil Alexander-Walker both contributed 20 points.
“We watched film yesterday,” Edwards said, according to Reuters. “We saw that it wasn’t just that we didn’t make shots (in Game 1), it was more so our defensive pressure and intensity.
“We didn’t bring it. So, we knew we had to bring it today.”
Kuminga had a team-high 18 points for the Warriors off the bench, while Jimmy Butler added 17 points.
Trayce Jackson-Davis had 15 off the bench as Kerr used a 14-man rotation in an attempt to find a combination that worked in Curry’s absence.
The Warriors said Curry has a Grade 1 strained left hamstring and will be reevaluated in a week, meaning he could possibly return for Game 5, which is scheduled for Wednesday, May 14.
“Part of the game plan coming in was to play a lot of people and we did,” Golden State coach Kerr said, according to the NBA. “We have to figure out what we’re going to be able to do in this series without Steph. We gave a lot of people a lot of chances and some guys really stepped up.
“We’ve got to figure out rotations and who we start, but they’re going to be a part of it. We’ve got to find some better ways to score.”
As referred to earlier, Green, who feels he is being unfairly stereotyped as “an angry black man”, made a heartfelt and gripping, powerful statement in response to this narrative following Thursday’s game.
“I’m not an angry black man. I’m a very successful, educated black man with a great family, and I’m great at basketball, I’m great at what I do. The agenda to try to keep making me look like an angry black man is crazy. I’m sick of it. It’s ridiculous,” Green said in the locker room following Game 2.
The series moves to the Bay Area, San Francisco, for Game 3 on Saturday.
