For all the good storylines surrounding the Warriors and their hot start this season, Andrew Wiggins has been relatively quiet.
Entering Wednesday night’s contest, he was averaging a career-low 15.6 points on 45.3 percent shooting. Facing his former team, Wiggins exploded for 35 points and turned in two of the most impressive plays of his Warriors career in a 121-108 win over the Minnesota Timberwolves.
“I felt like my younger self tonight,” Wiggins told NBC Sports California after the game.
Golden State is now 10-1 and riding a six-game win streak. It seems like someone new steps up every night and Wednesday belonged to Wiggins.
In the first half, he took liftoff from the baseline and absolutely posterized former teammate Karl Anthony-Towns.
Sometimes you forget how dynamic of an athlete Wiggins is. He spent the first six seasons of his career in Minnesota and always seems to turn it up against them as an opponent. In four games as a Warrior, Wiggins is now averaging 26 points per game on 60.5 percent shooting against the T-Wolves. That's his highest PPG against any team in the league.
"Not no revenge game," Wiggins said. "Just a well-played game against a former team. That's all that was. Competitive game, fun game."
Wiggins started the game by going 10-for-10 from the field before his first miss in the third quarter. He stayed aggressive going to the rim and created his own shot.
"You obviously don't expect a damn near perfect night like that every night," Steph Curry said. "But the intentions, the energy, the aggressiveness from start to finish. You love to see that."
Down the stretch, Wiggins provided a couple more huge highlights when he knocked down a dagger of a 3-pointer to put the Warriors up by 13 and into cruise control.
Wiggins added an exclamation mark to his evening by cleaning up a Jordan Poole miss with an emphatic one-handed slam. Once again, Anthony-Towns took the brunt of the impact.
Yeesh.
"I liked ‘em both," Wiggins said. "They were both on KAT. That’s my guy. He got me last year. So I got him back."
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Curry couldn't contain his smile when discussing Wiggins' huge dunks on Anthony-Towns.
"I gotta go see Wiggs' putback dunk," Curry said. "From my angle, he was up there and looking down at the rim."
But he was all about the first poster.
"Obviously, any time you catch a body like that, and their history," Curry said. "I'm gonna need that one on my wall. I'll tell you that much. That'd be a nice one. I'm gonna text Wiggs that picture of him dunking on KAT every game. Like right before the game, to see if that helps gets the juices flowing. He's got 72 text messages from me coming his way."
Wiggins finished 14-of-19 from the floor, 3-of-6 from long distance and 4-of-4 from the free-throw line. Warriors coach Steve Kerr said Wiggins is getting into a rhythm after being slowed by a knee injury that had him on a minutes restriction for the first few games of the season.
“Andrew was just fantastic,” Kerr said. “The aggression from the beginning of the game. Loved his energy. Obviously, he was pretty excited to play against his old team. We needed everything he brought us tonight. The scoring, the running the floor, getting to the foul line, knocking down threes. I thought he was tremendous.”
The Warriors will have to keep an eye on Draymond Green, who suffered a thigh contusion and is questionable for Friday’s matchup against the Chicago Bulls. Golden State has a chance to go 7-1 on its franchise-long eight-game homestand while setting a solid foundation for the season.
With Wiggins getting into the fold, this team could be an absolute juggernaut heading into December and January for the anticipated returns of James Wiseman and Klay Thompson.
