The Golden State Warriors will attempt to win without Stephen Curry for the first time this postseason and even their Western Conference second-round playoff series against the Minnesota Timberwolves when the clubs meet in Game 4 of the best-of-seven Monday night in San Francisco.
The seventh-seeded Warriors won 99-88 on the road to open the series, but lost Curry to a strained left hamstring in the process.
Minnesota, the sixth seed, has taken advantage in the two games since the injury, winning 117-93 at home and then 102-97 on Saturday night when the scene shifted to San Francisco.
Curry already has been ruled out for Game 4 and is expected to be re-evaluated Tuesday with the hope of returning before the end of the series. The clubs have three days off between Game 5 on Wednesday in Minneapolis and Game 6 (if necessary) next Sunday in San Francisco, making the Golden State star more likely to reappear for the latter than the former.
A Warriors win in either of the next two games assures that Game 6 will be played.
Game 3 turned into a scoring contest between the Timberwolves’ Anthony Edwards and Warriors’ Jimmy Butler III — and a duel of perimeter defenses. Minnesota won both.
Edwards outscored Butler 36-33 as he saved 15 of his points for a brilliant third quarter. He added 13 more when he made four of six shots in the fourth period, during which Minnesota overtook the hosts with a 33-24 run.
He had three of the visitors’ five 3-pointers in the final period, capping a long-range shooting display in which Minnesota went 13-for-34 for the game while Golden State was 10-for-23.
While that was a decent percentage for the Warriors, the 23 3-point attempts were their fewest of the season and nine fewer than they had attempted in any of their previous nine playoff games this year.
Naz Reid (3-for-3) and Jaden McDaniels (3-for-4) were particularly effective from deep for Minnesota, which improved to 3-1 on the road this postseason.
Through three games, Reid leads the Timberwolves in 3-pointers made (nine) and 3-point shooting percentage (50.0).
He noted the narrow margin of victory Saturday and Golden State’s earlier road win in the series as reasons his team can’t feel comfortable heading into another game in which Curry will not be playing.
“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 then made the most of his 36 minutes Saturday, exploding for a postseason career-high 30 points.
He credited Butler as being a positive role model even while Kuminga wasn’t playing much — if at all — down the stretch of the regular season and into the playoffs.
“We are all basketball players. You learn as you watch,” he said. “It’s me watching and learning; it makes sense playing around him. It’s kind of actually easy. It’s just the same way as Steph (Curry) in a different way. They are two different people, but they attract so much attention that you’ve just got to be alert when they’ve got the ball.”
–Field Level Media
