Warriors Vs. Timberwolves 1/25/2021

The Timberwolves went into this game without their 2 stars in D’Angelo Russell and Karl-Anthony Towns. They were coming off of a nice win where they didn’t play though. The Warriors came into this game coming off of a 2 game losing streak where in both games the Warriors got down early and weren’t able to catch up. In this game the Warriors were going to start Kevon Looney over James Wiseman for defensive reasons. To win this game the Timberwolves likely needed to find someone to have a big game with a few 10 point games from the rest of the team. They would also need to play amazing defense. For the Warriors to win this game they would need to make sure that they didn’t get down early and they needed to play better defense than in the previous games. To the game!

The Timberwolves won the tip to start off the game. At 11:31 Andrew Wiggins made a layup followed by a Malik Beasley layup on a fast break for the first points of the game. At 8:27 Andrew Wiggins received a lob from Draymond Green to give the Warriors a 10 point lead. Throughout the heart of the quarter the Warriors lead hovered around 15 points. With a monster dunk at 1:34 Anthony Edwards lowered the Warriors lead to 9. To end the quarter Damion Lee made 2 free throws to give the Warriors an 11 point lead going into the 2nd quarter. The score at the end of the quarter was 34-23. Going into the second quarter the Warriors were being led by Stephen Curry who had 9 points whereas the Timberwolves were being led by Malik Beasley with 7. Fouling was a bit of an issue for the Timberwolves with 5 more fouls than the Warriors in the first quarter. The shooting splits were 57.1% from 2 and 37.5% from 3. The Timberwolves didn’t shoot very well with 37.5% from the field and 16.7% from 3. The Warriors went into the second quarter with an early lead and momentum.

To start off the second quarter Damion Lee made a 3 to make the lead 14. At 9:15 Steve Kerr had to call a timeout after a Timberwolves 8-0 run. At 8:32 Eric Paschall made a jumper to bring the Warriors lead back up to 10. The Warriors kept building up their lead throughout the middle of the second quarter. For the final points of the half Malik Beasley made a 3 pointer making the score 68-54 at the half. The Warriors were pretty consistent on the offensive side this quarter with 34 points which was the same amount of points as they scored in the 1st quarter. They weren’t as consistent on the defense side though giving up 32 points in the 2nd quarter compared to only 22 in the first. I think that that is very well showed by the fact that the Timberwolves shooting splits really improved in the 2nd quarter with 43.5% from the field and 33.3% from behind the line. The Warriors on the other hand shot better from 3 but worse from the field in the second quarter with 50% from the field and 50% from 3. Each team was still being led by the same player from last quarter. Stephen Curry had 16 points at halftime and Malik Beasley had 15 points. In previous games the Warriors have had problems with rebounding and fouling. In this game the Timberwolves had more fouls and less rebounds than the Warriors. At halftime the Timberwolves had not missed a free throw yet. To the third!

For the first points of the 3rd quarter Kevon Looney made a dunk to give the Warriors a 16 point lead. At 5:34 Draymond Green got a technical foul after a weird call. Throughout the heart of the 3rd quarter the Timberwolves kept chipping away at the Warriors lead. At 1:38 Anthony Edwards made 3 free throws to lower the Warriors lead to 10. At the end of the 3rd quarter the score was 93-83. In the third quarter the Timberwolves were able to cut the Warriors lead to 10 after playing good defense. The Warriors were still being led by Curry who had had 21 points at the end of the third and Malik Beasley was leading the Timberwolves with 22 points. Going into the final quarter the Warriors were shooting 47.1% from the field and 40% from deep. The Timberwolves on the other hand shot 42.3% from 2 and 27.8% from 3.

To start the 4th quarter Ed Davis made a put back dunk to lower the Warriors lead to 8. Eric Paschall followed that up with a 3. At 6:45 Steve Kerr called a timeout after an 8-0 run from the Timberwolves. After the timeout Curry subbed in and scored the Warriors next 8 points. At 3:27 Stephen Curry made a 3 to give the Warriors an 18 point and give himself 36 points 15 of them had been in the last 3 minutes 20 seconds. With 53.5 seconds to go Jordan Poole made a floater to give the Warriors their biggest lead of the game to that point at 20. With 31.1 seconds to go James Wiseman made 2 free throws to give the Warriors their biggest lead of the game and the final points. The final score was 130-108.

Leo’s Courtside Commentary: The Timberwolves never had a lead in this game after the Warriors took an early first quarter lead. The Warriors started Looney which definitely helped the Warriors take that early lead by playing good defense with Draymond. A great stat that showed Looney’s impact was his +/- which was 21. This was Andrew Wiggins’ first game against his former team and he had a good one scoring 23 points. Curry also had a good game scoring 36 points with 15 of them coming in a 3 minute 30 second span. Malik Beasley played especially well for the Timberwolves with 30 points. The Timberwolves had a bunch of fouls with 28 compared to the Warriors 19. The Warriors played great defense in this game with 13 blocks and 10 steals. The Warriors shot pretty well in this game which was showed well by the shooting splits. The shooting splits at the end of the game were 49.4% from 2 and 46.7% from 3 for the Warriors and 41.5% from 2 and 33.3% from 3 for the Timberwolves. Overall, this was a game where the Warriors had a great start and played a somewhat average game after that.