Timberwolves Wrap: Wolves fall to champs at home

The Timberwolves dropped to 0-4 at home on the season as they were unable to best the defending champion Golden State Warriors.

Ricky Rubio was a late scratch from the lineup, which of course set the Wolves back quite a bit on the defensive end of the floor.

The Warriors started out hot with 40 first quarter points, 21 of those coming from Stephen Curry. With Rubio out, the Wolves struggled guarding the reigning MVP in the opening frame.

Zach LaVine was forced to guard Curry and was unable to keep track of him. It’s not necessarily that LaVine is a bad on-ball defender, but apparently has not figured out how to get through screens.

The Wolves bench was able to hang with the Warriors for much of the second quarter. Shabazz Muhammad paced the Wolves with 13 points on 5 of 6 shooting. As Muhammad has struggled so far this season, a good shooting performance has to help boost his confidence.

The halftime score of 75-63 was a little bit of role reversal for the Wolves — after scoring 72 points in the first half in Atlanta on Monday, the Warriors scored 75 on the Wolves..

The Wolves played good offensively in the first half, shooting 51 percent from the floor. On the other hand, the Warriors shot nearly 64 percent. Minnesota’s defense was the main issue in the first half, and continued to be a problem in the second.

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Sam Mitchell said it best during his TNT interview during the quarter break prior to the fourth frame: “We’re getting good shots; we’re just not making them. They are.” As the second half commenced the Wolves offense looked good as Karl-Anthony Towns and Andrew Wiggins played well.

On the other end, Stephen Curry scored 10 third-quarter points to put the visitors in the driver’s seat. They led by 21 points at one time in the second half before the Timberwolves drew a bit closer.

It was primarily the Wolves second unit once again that was able to keep the game from getting out of control as they went on a 12-0 run to end the third. Heading to the fourth quarter the Wolves were only down by a score of 97-87.

The Wolves managed to pull within five points, but were ultimately over-matched. The main negative of this game for the Wolves was their defense, and while it’s hard to adequately defend an offensive as potent as the Warriors, the Wolves looked lost most of the night on defense. They were unable to get around screens, leading to a number of wide open shots for Golden State.

Again, a skill that Ricky Rubio is particularly adept at.

Nonetheless, positives can still be taken away from this game. The Wolves did come back from being down 21 points in the second half and that shows a great amount of resilience. Not only that, most of that comeback came with the bench on the floor. It was good to see Muhammad, Gorgui Dieng, and even Andre Miller perform well off the bench.

All in all the Wolves played a fairly good game; the Warriors are just a far better team than Minnesota, and that’s okay.

Tweet of the Night

https://twitter.com/TWolvesGameday/status/665006921502601216

Clip of the Night

Star of the Night

Stephen Curry: 46 points (15-25 FG, 8-13 3P, 8-8 FT), 4 assists, 5 rebounds, 2 steals

The Wolves struggled to guard Curry all night as most teams do, but Steph Curry is simply an unbelievably fun player to watch.

I love what Kenny Smith said about him after the game on TNT: “He’s like Michael Jordan without the dunks.” And even though it sounds bold, is he wrong? It’s tough to think of a player that is more difficult to guard, save for LeBron James.

Other Notable Lines

• Andrew Wiggins – 19 points (7-17 FG, 1-2 3P, 4-6 FT), 5 assists, 2 rebounds
• Karl-Anthony Towns – 17 points (7-15 FG, 3-4 FT), 11 rebounds, 5 turnovers
• Shabazz Muhammad – 16 points (6-8 FG, 0-1 3P, 4-5 FT), 4 rebounds
• Gorgui Dieng – 11 points (4-6 FG, 3-3 FT), 4 rebounds
• Andre Miller – 11 points (5-8 FG, 1-2 FT), 4 assists, 3 rebounds

Next: No Frills Wolves Podcast: An Exciting Second Week

Up Next

The Wolves do not have much time to lick their wounds as they will travel to Indiana on Thursday night for a game with Paul George and the Pacers on Friday.

The Pacers are just a shade above .500 at 5-4 and are coming off a road win in Boston on Wednesday. The game will be the second back-to-back the Wolves have played so far this week and the fourth game in five nights.