The Wolves obviously are not yet on par with a team like the Warriors, but for now a 13-point loss with Minnesota’s best players stepping up will do. Curry likely burns Minnesota no matter what they do, but maybe they prevent him from a gaudy 46-point performance. So then you sit there and you wonder, okay, if you don’t do those things and just try to play conventionally, he might get 60.
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“He was decent tonight”.
“Any time he’s on the court, he’s just finding everybody for open shots, open dunks, alley-oops”, Warriors interim head coach Luke Walton said of Green.
“He’s just so unsafe. He’s always in attack mode”.
The 10-0 record gives the Warriors their best start ever, and they also have won their first five road games for the first time.
The Warriors opened defense of their title as emphatically as possible, using potshots from the likes of the Houston Rockets and Los Angeles Clippers as fuel while blowing the doors off the league.
And they would be carried by their start – Adrew Miller provides good defence on Curry, getting his hand on the ball, but the reigning MVP still cans the longball, to make it an 18-point game in the third.
More important than anything that happened on the scoreboard, we saw the players of the future put in meaningful contributions against a tough opponent.
Andrew Wiggins led Minnesota with 19 points, Karl-Anthony Towns finished with 17 points and 11 rebounds, and reserve forward Shabazz Muhammad added 16 points in 19 minutes.
Anyone expecting the Timberwolves to snap their winless streak at home this season was bound to be disappointed on Thursday night.
It didn’t take long for Curry to heat up Thursday as he had 25 points at halftime, and the Warriors looked like they were going to run away with the game early at the Target Center arena in Minneapolis.
The Warriors scored the game’s first 10 points, including six by Curry.
Derrick Favors led Utah with 25 points and 12 rebounds. But the Warriors burst out of the gate to take a 16-point lead 9 minutes into the first quarter.
With last season’s MVP on the bench, Minnesota pulled as close as 48-42 midway through the second but trailed 75-63 at the half. The 75 points scored by Golden State are the most by any team in a half this season.
Stephen Curry finished with 46 points, his third 40-point game of the season, and the Warriors stayed undefeated.
“I don’t want to talk about chasing record seasons and all that”, he said.
Despite the excellent start, the Wolves were able to fight their way back into the game.
The Warriors went 18 for 38 from 3-point range while Minnesota was just 3 for 9.
“We did a great job, especially against the defending champions”, Towns said. While a win was unlikely, seeing a team fight and be competitive against the best team in the league is all anyone could have asked for.
Curry finished with 46 points, five rebounds, and four assists.
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Draymond Green had 23 points, 12 assists and eight rebounds for the Warriors, who are the fourth defending champion to start the season with at least 10 straight victories.
