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Stephen Curry puts on early show in Warriors’ 142-110 win over Timberwolves

Golden State proves it’s a team worth getting up early to watch.

By Patrick Murray
Golden State Warriors v Minnesota Timberwolves
Steph on his way to 40 preseason points
Photo by Zhong Zhi/Getty Images

The Timberwolves came out sharp in Shanghai.

Karl-Anthony Towns, finding his feet after a couple of early travels, took it to the Warriors inside and out. Jimmy Butler looked at home, too — getting to the line, creating for teammates. Meanwhile, Andrew Wiggins was twirling, twirling, twirling toward freedom.

The Warriors’ defense, however, was of the 4 a.m. variety. The team struggled to keep up with the Wolves’ attack in transition and fouled far too frequently in the half court. At the end of the first quarter, Minnesota had put up 44 points.

Offensively, the Warriors looked a bit better. Klay Thompson opened with a couple of threes, Kevin Durant had a nice run and Stephen Curry was aggressive, including several nice moves to the rim.

The second quarter opened with something that looked pretty much like the regular-season rotation. With Nick Young out, Kerr played Klay and Durant with Shaun Livingston, Andre Iguodala and David West — the second unit from the beginning of last season. But the Warriors continued to look disjointed with some sloppy passing and dodgy defense.

Then Steph returned to wake everybody up. A couple of much-needed stops and ensuing fast breaks followed, including this nice dunk from Durant.

Steph then took over with a few nice drives, some 18-foot jumpers off the dribble, an assist for a Draymond Green three-pointer, a steal and this fast-break beauty:

Despite the foul-heavy defense, the Warriors were back in it.

Klay kept the Warriors going with hot shooting, such as this absolutely gorgeous sequence:

By the halftime buzzer, the Warriors had come back from trailing 44-36 to take a 76-72 lead behind Steph’s pyrotechnics.

As the second half opened, Wiggins and Towns made the ill-advised decision to challenge the Warriors to a shootout. The Splash Brothers responded in the only way they know how: Klay opened up 2-2, while Steph went 4-4 from three-point land. Durant added another bucket and, soon enough, the Wolves were down 15.

By this time, Steph was just making people look silly. He ended up sitting after putting up 40 points in three quarters — 19 of those points in the third quarter alone.

With a shortened preseason, Kerr continued with the regular-season rotations, with some second-unit rotations featuring Klay and Durant who looked comfortable opening up the fourth quarter and both scoring with ease.

Grand takeaway: Jordan Bell is scary

With six minutes to go, a decent dose of the garbage-time rotation featuring Omri Casspi, Patrick McCaw and, quite frankly, an utterly dominant Jordan Bell.

The defense may have started off a little sleepy, but this was a fun game. The Warriors proved something I’ve long known — they’re worth waking up early to watch.

Poll

Who was the Warrior Wonder for the first preseason win?

This poll is closed

  • 1%
    Kevin Durant
    (27 votes)
  • 0%
    Draymond Green
    (4 votes)
  • 0%
    Zaza Pachulia
    (11 votes)
  • 76%
    Steph Curry
    (1446 votes)
  • 2%
    Klay Thompson
    (39 votes)
  • 0%
    JaVale McGee
    (14 votes)
  • 0%
    Andre Iguodala
    (3 votes)
  • 0%
    Patrick McCaw
    (1 vote)
  • 0%
    David West
    (0 votes)
  • 0%
    Shaun Livingston
    (1 vote)
  • 0%
    Omri Casspi
    (14 votes)
  • 14%
    Jordan Bell
    (276 votes)
  • 0%
    Michael Gbinje
    (14 votes)
  • 0%
    Georges Niang
    (15 votes)
  • 0%
    Kevon Looney
    (14 votes)
1879 votes total Vote Now

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