Stephen Curry was already in the locker room with a bag of ice against his leg when his Golden State teammates arrived for halftime with a comfortable lead. Buddy Hield and Draymond Green delivered from 3-point range with Curry suddenly sidelined by a hamstring strain, and Jimmy Butler gave the Warriors a vintage all-around performance in an inspired 99-88 victory over the stumbling Timberwolves that opened the second-round series on Tuesday night.
"Day to day you'll get an MRI tomorrow," said Warriors coach Steve Kerr. "I talked to him at halftime just, you know, he's obviously crushed, but the guys picked him up and played a great game. And obviously we're all concerned about stuff, but it's part of the game."
For the Wolves though, it was a struggle and head coach Chris Finch placed a lot of the blame at the feet of the Timberwolves budding superstar, Anthony Edwards. Finch was asked if he talked to Edwards about his struggles in the first half when Golden State ran away from the Wolves early.
"What is there to talk about? I mean, you're the leader of the team and you got to come out and set the tone in all ways that that happens," an aggravated Finch said after the game. "If your shot's not going, like you still have to carry the energy. I don't think - if I've got to talk to guys about having the right energy coming into opening the second round game, we're not on the same page."
Minnesota followed up a dreadful performance from the 3-point line in their Game 5 win over Los Angeles with another dreadful performance. The Wolves were only 5-29 from behind the line (17.2%). In the first half it seemed like they couldn't throw the ball into Lake Minnetonka.
The Warriors sure made the best of a bad situation with Curry out of the game however. Despite missing Curry, who is maybe the greatest 3-point shooter of all-time, the Warriors still hit 42% of their shots from beyond the arc making it too big of a hill for Minnesota to climb.
“It was beautiful to see,” Green said. “Everybody who came into the game gave us something.”
Hield picked up where he left off in the Game 7 win at Houston that finished the first round by scoring 24 points on 5-for-8 shooting from 3-point range.
Butler had 20 points, 11 rebounds and eight assists and Green had four first-half 3s on his way to 18 points, as the Warriors used 12 players, plenty of hustle and lockdown defense to overcome the concerning departure of the franchise cornerstone Curry.
“It's about the intensity and the heart and the fight, and if you do that, you give yourself a chance,” Kerr said.
The home teams have yet to win in the second round of these NBA playoffs. Minnesota has another chance to get one in Game 2 on Thursday.
The big question: Will Curry will be available? The league's career-leading 3-point shooter and four-time NBA champion exited early in the second quarter after hitting a 14-footer and grabbing the back of his left leg. The Warriors ruled him out for the remainder of the game soon after that.
Kerr frequently sent a zone defense at a Wolves team that went 7 for 47 from 3-point range in a convincing win over the Los Angeles Lakers in the Game 5 clincher in the first round, and the bricks piled up even higher after nearly a week off.
“People are going to try to blame whatever, blame whoever,” said Edwards, who had one point in the first half. “They can blame me. I just didn’t play good enough.”
The Wolves missed their first 16 shots from 3-point range until they were down by 20 and Naz Reid drained one from the wing with 8:32 left in the third quarter.
Edwards had 23 points and 14 rebounds after the rough start, finishing 9 for 22 from the floor. Reid had 19 points and Julius Randle added 16 points for the Wolves, who finished 5 for 29 from behind the arc and trailed by 23 points late in the third.
“We had opportunities to run out. Our transition decision making was diabolical,” coach Chris Finch said. “Obviously we couldn’t hit a shot, but I didn’t like the fact that we couldn’t repeatedly generate good shots. We should’ve been able to.”
Butler, Green and the Warriors had a big hand in that.
"I just think we didn't play well," Randle added. "I mean, to be honest, we still were up two at the end of the first quarter and just had a bad stretch in the second quarter. And I just think overall, we just offensively - we just didn't play well."