The Golden State Warriors will try to secure a victory without Stephen Curry for the first time during this year’s playoffs as they face the Minnesota Timberwolves in Game 4 of their Western Conference second-round series on Monday evening in San Francisco.
The Warriors, seeded seventh, secured a 99-88 victory away from home to start the series, though they lost Curry due to a pulled left hamstring in the process.
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Minnesota, seeded sixth, has capitalized on the two matches following the injury, securing a win with a score of 117-93 at their home court and subsequently. 102-97 on Saturday night When the setting changed to San Francisco.
Curry has already been declared unfit for Game 4 and will reportedly undergo another evaluation on Tuesday with hopes of coming back before the series concludes. There are three days between Game 5 on Wednesday in Minneapolis and potential Game 6 next Sunday in San Francisco. This break provides Curry a higher likelihood of participating in Game 6 rather than Game 5.
If a Warriors victory occurs in any of the upcoming two matches, it guarantees that Game 6 will take place.
In Game 3, the scoring contest was primarily between the Timberwolves' Anthony Edwards and the Warriors' Jimmy Butler III, along with their perimeter defense skills. Both teams emerged victorious in this aspect.
In the game against Butler, Edwards led with a score of 36-33. He managed to secure 15 of those points spectacularly in the third quarter alone. Adding another 13 points in the final period—by successfully making four out of six shots—he helpedMinnesota take the lead from their opponents. During this decisive stretch, they secured a scoring advantage of 33-24.
READ: NBA: Stephen Curry's Injury Raises Doubts About Series Against the Wolves Continuation
In the last quarter, he made three out of the visitors' five 3-point shots, concluding an impressive long-distance shooting performance where Minnesota achieved 13 successful attempts out of 34 tries throughout the game, whereas Golden State managed 10 successes from 23 attempts.
Although that constituted a fair share for the Warriors, their 23 three-point tries stood as the lowest tally for the season and were nine less than what they had shot in any of their preceding nine postseason matches this year.
Naz Reid (3-for-3) and Jaden McDaniels (3-for-4) were notably efficient from long range for Minnesota, helping them improve their away record to 3-1 during the playoffs.
In their first three games, Reid tops the Timberwolves in both 3-pointers made (nine) and 3-point shooting percentage (50.0).
He pointed out the slim margin of victory on Saturday and the previous away win by Golden State in the series as factors indicating his team shouldn't relax before another game where Curry won't be participating.
READ: NBA: Warriors finding new winning formula vs Timberwolves in Game 3
“There’s no sigh of relief at any point,” he demanded. “This is a playoff series for a reason. Whether you’re up or down, you still got to go take care of business.”
The Warriors got an unexpected boost in Game 3 from Jonathan Kuminga, who had played just 63 minutes in Golden State’s first eight playoff games before getting an earlier call and responding with 18 points in Game 2 at Minnesota.
Kuminga subsequently maximized his 36-minute playtime on Saturday, scoring a playoff-career-best 30 points.
He acknowledged Butler as a positive influence, even when Kuminga was seeing limited play time—or none at all—towards the end of the regular season and deep into the playoffs.
We're all essentially basketball players. You pick up things as you observe," he stated. "I'm focused on watching and absorbing knowledge; it feels natural to play alongside him. It's quite straightforward really. He plays somewhat like how Steph (Curry) does, albeit differently. Despite being distinct individuals, both command significant attention, so you must stay vigilant whenever they have possession of the ball.