Timberwolves Wrap: Warriors’ 3-point barrage downs Wolves

The Timberwolves hung around for the entire game before finally succumbing to a barrage of 3-pointers from the defending champion Golden State Warriors on Thursday night in Oakland.

In case you weren’t aware, the Golden State Warriors are an incredible, incredible assembly of NBA talent.

While the Timberwolves lost by 13 points, they didn’t play all too badly. Outside of a sluggish start, the Wolves played the Warriors tough, and while answering a string of 3-pointers with Taj Gibson post-ups, Jeff Teague floaters, and mid-range jumpers from Gorgui Dieng  won’t work out from a math perspective, it kept them in the game.

And for as much as TNT color commentator Chris Webber screamed about the Wolves needing to match the Warriors pace and not walk the ball up the court, and yadda, yadda, yadda, well … that’s not how you beat the Warriors. The Wolves, as Webber and play-by-play partner Marv Albert deftly identified, don’t have enough shooters to play today’s space-and-pace game. Which is why it’s even more confounding that the duo felt as though the Wolves should, in fact, play faster.

This game was a clinic from Golden State. The ball movement was crisp and the 3-pointers were dropping through the net, whether the shot was open, semi-open, or completely contested by one or more Wolves. And while giving up 126 points is never a good thing, it’s far from an embarrassment when the likes of the Warriors play like, well, the Warriors.

At any rate, Karl-Anthony Towns‘ 16-point first half and an onslaught from Jamal Crawford early in the fourth quarter kept the Wolves within striking distance until about the four-minute mark of the fourth quarter.

Tweets of the Night

Key Takeaways

• The Timberwolves started off slow, but the Warriors heated up in a hurry while it took the Wolves until the midway point of the second quarter to begin playing hard and cohesively on both ends of the court. By that time, Golden State had already built a 16-point lead.
• After the middle of the second frame, however, the Wolves were actually quite efficient on offense. Outside of shooting below their season per-game average in free throw attempts (18 FTA compared to a season average of 24.8 per game), they finally hit a handful of threes in the third quarter as they drew within five points. Of course, the Warriors’ lead ballooned back up to 17 in short order, and what had been a 12-point halftime lead was 13 leading to the fourth quarter.
• Towns was great all game long, save for a couple missed free throws and a couple of missed bunnies at the rim. He was active on the glass and made smart decisions with the ball in his hands.
• Jamal Crawford almost single-handedly kept the Wolves in the game for much of the fourth quarter, finishing with 21 points in 25 minutes and getting his squad back within eight with under five minutes remaining in the game.
• All things considered, this was a solid performance on the second night of a back-to-back, without Jimmy Butler, and on Golden State’s home floor. The defense struggled — part of a somewhat disturbing trend without Butler in the lineup over the past week — but that’s to be expected against one of the best offenses that the NBA has ever seen.

Player of the Game

Kevin Durant: 28 points (10-19 FG, 6-9 3P, 2-2 FT), 11 rebounds, 10 assists, 2 steals, 2 blocks

Durant keyed the Warriors offense on this night. It seemed liked the majority of his six 3-point makes were wide-open, although he also found Klay Thompson (7-of-9 on 3-pointers) and Steph Curry (5-of-9 on threes) outside the arc to the tune of 10 assists.

Thompson was the most efficient shooter on the floor and seemed to be hitting the toughest threes, including during the second half stretch when the Wolves were drawing back to within a couple of possessions.

Notable Box Score Lines

• Karl-Anthony Towns: 31 points (13-24 FG, 1-5 3P, 4-6 FT), 11 rebounds, 5 assists
• Jeff Teague: 17 points (7-14 FG, 1-2 3P, 2-2 FT), 7 assists, 3 rebounds, 2 steals, one block
• Taj Gibson: 12 points (6-13 FG), 10 rebounds, one assist, one steal, one block
• Andrew Wiggins: 10 points (4-18 FG, 0-2 3P, 2-2 FT), 4 rebounds, 3 assists, 2 steals, one block
• Nemanja Bjelica: 11 points (4-8 FG, 3-5 3P), 6 rebounds, 3 assists, 2 steals
• Jamal Crawford: 21 points (9-16 FG, 1-4 3P, 2-2 FT), 5 assists, 3 rebounds

Next: Timberwolves Power Rankings: No Butler, no worries

What’s Next?

The Timberwolves head home for yet another one-game homestand to take on the Brooklyn Nets on Saturday night at Target Center. The game tips off at 8 p.m. CT, and the Wolves should have a chance to get Jimmy Butler back in the lineup after going 2-2 in his absence due to a sore knee.