December 7th 2024.
On Friday night at the Chase Center, the Golden State Warriors were hit with the harsh reality of Newton's third law of basketball injuries. Despite the return of star players Steph Curry and Draymond Green, the team suffered the loss of two more players, Andrew Wiggins and Moses Moody, to ankle and knee injuries during the game.
This left coach Steve Kerr once again searching for solutions, a task he has been faced with for the past three weeks. It became apparent that the Warriors were lacking in both shooting and playmaking abilities, unable to handle the intense pressure from the Minnesota Timberwolves.
The Warriors were behind for the entire second half, ultimately losing 107-90 with a rematch against the Timberwolves looming on Sunday. Minnesota's relentless defense forced 21 turnovers from Golden State and held them to less than 30% shooting from beyond the arc.
In an effort to mix things up, Kerr started Jonathan Kuminga at power forward and brought Green off the bench in his return from a two-game absence. Kuminga played aggressively, but was unable to repeat his impressive 33-point performance from the previous game, finishing with 13 points on 15 shots. Green, who has played off the bench before, seemed to have a renewed energy, scoring eight points and grabbing three rebounds in his first seven minutes.
Despite all the talk of making changes to the rotation, Kerr ultimately only shuffled the order of operations rather than making any significant adjustments. He ended up playing 13 different players, including Pat Spencer, out of both necessity and injuries.
One major change that had already been implemented before Friday's game was Curry's minutes pattern. Instead of his usual rotation, he played the entire first and third quarters and sat out for the majority of the second and fourth quarters, staggering his playing time with Brandin Podziemski.
But even with Curry on the court, the Warriors struggled to find their rhythm, scoring only two points in the first six minutes of the second quarter and committing numerous turnovers. By the time Kerr called a timeout, the Wolves had taken a commanding 48-35 lead. Golden State was outscored 17-4 in that stretch, with half as many made field goals as turnovers.
Desperate for a spark, Kerr turned to Lindy Waters III, bringing the rotation back down to 12 players. This was a move that may have otherwise gone to Moses Moody, who was forced to exit the game with a sore knee. Rudy Gobert and Naz Reid dominated defensively for the Wolves, causing numerous issues for the Warriors in the paint. Green even picked up a technical foul after getting hit in the mouth by Julius Randle's elbow, a call that went uncalled.
In the end, the Warriors' struggles on offense and inability to contain Minnesota's Anthony Edwards led to their sixth loss in seven games. The team was also hindered by Wiggins' injury, which forced him to leave the game after only 19 minutes. Even with a strong push from Curry and the rest of the team, they were unable to overcome the deficit and lost by a disappointing 18 points.
As the game wound down and fans began to leave, the Warriors' bench players were left to finish the game in mop-up duty, a disappointing end to a tough night for the team.
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