Timberwolves-Warors: 5 properties as a golden state steals game 1 in Minnesota

Minneapolis – It was “different,” made Minnesota coach Chris Finch, that his Timberwolves did not know for a few days which opponent they would be confronted in their semi -finals of the Western Conference.

After all, they had picked up the Lakers in the first round in five games, while the Houston-Golden State series looked at the maximum seven before the warriors appeared on Saturday evening.

Uncertainty can often be worrying, which is why so many people were thrown in the Target Center on Tuesday. They did not recognize the home team.

The wolves that knocked down the higher lacers and Luka Dončič and LeBron James with an abrupt night season were still in sight in game 1.

For a team who took third place in the first round and in the regular season in the offensive efficiency, it was difficult to reach. Her 88 not only represented her season depth, but her few in 109 games and 13 months from the last spring.

The Golden State, on the other hand, revealed another layer of resistance in the flowering, certainly more than just surviving, without its human swizzle stick for most of the game.

Here are five snack bars where the Warriors House Money play. The HomeCourt advantage has already changed in game 2 (Thursday 8:30 ET, TNT):

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1. No curry, no (immediate) problem

The Warriors' towing guard waxed twice on his left thigh at the beginning of the second quarter. He ended the possession of his team by hurling the ball to Draymond Green to one of the four unlikely 3-pointers from Green and then went directly into the changing room and carefully went with a Warriors coach in tow.

Sure enough, Curry's Simstring strain was enough to do what Minnesota still calculated – she switched it off. Curry's line was okay 13 minutes: 13 points on 5 against 9 shooting, three 3 and plus 10. He helped the Warriors 30: 20, on the way to a 15-0 run to start the quarter. You never went back to the end.

It would get worse before it got better. The wolves stayed deep in the third before they strain in the fourth to get within single-digit digits. You did this four times for a total of 79 seconds.

Buddy Hield, the Warriors' Game 7 Held against The Rockets, started his distant meter, met five of his eight sheets and ended with 24 points (after it was displayed in the wrong uniform shorts at Tipoff). Green scoring In double -digit numbers is always a bonus – he had 18 – and Jimmy Butler switched the attack by Golden State late to run the clock on the wolves.

Since the series plays up to a potential game 6 every other day, Curry's recovery will float. Then he limp to the bus and was hired for an MRI test on Wednesday. But the performance of the warriors in the opener was not a bit of despair.

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2. Edwards shows no fire in this 'ant'

When the NBA and its network announced this series, the Minnesota page of the Marketing Ledger concentrated on Anthony Edwards, its rapidly twitching, three-time all-star with a photogenic smile and a stunning vertical. This type was basically a no-show in this, not only statistical, but also in energy and leadership.

So his trainer said.

“It starts with 'Ant',” he fought early and then you could just see how the light goes out for a while, “said Finch.” I think it was one of these games in which he came out of what he would do. “

Edwards missed his first 10 shots and only got a bucket for four minutes in the second half. So, no verbal blow on the head on the way to change his trajectory?

“What is there to speak?” Said Finch. “You are the team's leader, and you have to come out and indicate the sound in all way, and if your recordings do not go, you still have to wear the energy.”

The shooting of the wolves, which achieved an average of 26.8 points against the Lakers in the first round, scored 22 of his 23rd in the last 20 minutes of this game, but his team had lost control of the game until then. Incidentally, he did not agree to the assessment of his trainer.

“No, I felt that I had played a big defense,” he said. “I just have to do better on the offensive.”

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3. Death by threesome

In the modern NBA, no number of brick 3-point attempts are sufficient to embarrass or shape a team to give up the weapon. There is a method of this madness based on a basis of trust from the past and the belief in the mathematics of regression on the mean.

Nevertheless, the fidget and dismay of home masses can be felt, Clang to Clang. It was one thing for Minnesota to shoot the seam over the Lakers 7-against-47 trials.

Seven for 63, a frost only when Naz Reid finally sank at 8:32 a.m. to do it 55-38? Too little, too late. Minnesota met five of his last 13 out of the arch in his ineffective comeback offer. Both teams ended with 34 field goals, but Golden State had 18 Treys for the five wolves.

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4. Divincenzo found a flicker

Donte Divincenzo looked defeated when the third quarter ended. His violent end was bad when the horns sounded and his shoulders broke together when he trudged on the bench.

But something came into him to start the fourth. He was grown by Ref Bill Kennedy for an offensive foul, it did not like it and was then hit six seconds later with another foul by Kennedy in which the game of the Warriors was used up.

This little mind flash seemed to shed light on a small fire, with Minnesota trapping a 13: 2 run that lowered the gap to nine. But the time was over, Butler made sure that the Warriors plunged the pace and the eight offensive rebounds of the Golden State have twice and triple winners in the quarter.

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5. Warriors are small and defensive about it

Even if the wolves run unusually cool, Golden State has made a good defensive job. His zone dared to shoot Minnesota, she exaggerated and prevailed. In the last 36 minutes, the Warriors exceeded their hosts 39-25. They hummed the wolves in 16 sales, a bugaboo that also injured them early in the season. And in this crucial second quarter they held Minnesota to 11 points.

Finch had already seen this in the video preparation.

“These guys do a good job to rave about you and to displace you in color,” said the Wolves trainer. “They come deep into the color around the edge. They accept charges, there is always body. Your competitiveness on the ball is a high level.

The wolves didn't do it until it was too late.

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Steve Aschburner has written about the NBA since 1980. You can send it by email Herefind His archive here And Follow him on X.

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