After Tuesday’s disappointing effort to the Dallas Mavericks, the Golden State Warriors failed to respond in Thursday night’s 126-114 loss to the Minnesota Timberwolves.
Stephen Curry scored 37 points and Andrew Wiggins, in his first game back to Target Center since being traded from Minnesota last year, finished with 27. But those two didn’t get much help from the supporting cast as Golden State (31-32) gave up 20 3-pointers and were out-rebounded 57-34 by a Timberwolves team that has now won four straight.
Going into the game, head coach Steve Kerr had predicted the best defensive performance of the season but, on a night when the Warriors shot 50% overall, they could not get enough stops when it mattered most.
After using a 25-10 run to come back from 13 points down and take a two-point lead into the fourth, the Warriors were outscored 37-23 in the final period.
For Minnesota (20-44), rookie Anthony Edwards had 25 points on 10-for-19 shooting, center Karl-Anthony Towns had a double-double (22 points and 11 rebounds) and point guard Ricky Rubio poured in 26 points, including five 3-pointers.
This is a tough loss for the Warriors for two reasons: During their playoff push, they dropped a winnable game and fall a full game behind San Antonio for the No. 9 seed; and Minnesota with the win moves into the third-worst record in the league during a season in which Golden State owns its top-three protected pick.
