The Golden State Warriors had a bad loss against the 7 seed Minnesota Timberwolves at Minnesota. The Warriors lost the game despite a great performance from Steph Curry who had 34 points. The major reason was that Steph’s performance was outdone by Karl Anthony Towns who had 39 points and 9 rebounds.
The Warriors came into the game without Draymond Green who is suffering from back issues and Klay Thompson who was ruled out due to a non-COVID illness. The Timberwolves were shorthanded as well without one of their most important pieces in Anthony Edwards. Edwards did not play because he was suffering from a knee injury.
The Warriors had 6 players in double digits including Curry. Andrew Wiggins and Jordan Poole had 12 points, Gary Payton Jr. had 14 points, Damion Lee – 15 points and Jonathan Kuminga had 13 points. The Timberwolves had 4 players other than Towns that had scored in double digits with 2 of them scoring 20+ points ( D’Angelo Russell and Malik Beasley). The other 2 players were Patrick Beverley (10 points and 7 assists) and Taurean Prince (11 points).
The Warriors mainly lost because of their lack of ball movement and defensive intensity. The Timberwolves had 8 steals to the Warriors’ 6 steals and 9 blocks to the Warriors’ 3 blocks. The lack of size also hurt the Warriors as they had no answer for Karl Anthony Towns. The Warriors ended up losing, 129-114.
The Timberwolves are currently in 7th place in the Western Conference and inch closer to becoming a top 6 team. Currently, they are in the Play-in spot. To get into the Playoffs, they will have to win just one Play-in game out of 2 against the teams in 8th to 10th place.
The Warriors on the other hand are in a more precarious position and might lose the 2 seed to a Memphis Grizzlies squad that is just half a game behind them in the Western Conference standings. While it doesn’t hurt the Warriors who have Championship experience, the Warriors might need that home-court advantage when they go up against teams like the Suns and Grizzlies.
