The Golden State Warriors lost an exciting, but bizarrely officiated 131-130 game to the Minnesota Timberwolves. I’ll have more on the officiating in the Warriors Wonder that’ll post later today, but for now I’ll just share three gold-blooded musings from last night’s game.
END OF Q3: This game is tied at 86-86, which required quite the collapse from Golden State. Warriors were up 73-54 early in Q3 before giving up a 32-13 run to close the quarter.
— Connor Letourneau (@Con_Chron) March 30, 2019
Just a brutal third quarter for the Warriors. They go 5-of-20 shooting, commit 8 turnovers, give up 32 points and watch a 14-point halftime lead disappear. It's 86-86 heading to the 4th.
— Anthony Slater (@anthonyVslater) March 30, 2019
Brutal Q3 by Warriors. 0-9 from deep, 8 turnovers, 18 points.
— Monte Poole (@MontePooleNBCS) March 30, 2019
After building a 19pt lead, it's 86-86 entering the fourth.
Steph Curry: Professional Scorer
The greatest point guard alive is quietly sculpting the second greatest scoring season of his 10 year career. He’s averaging 27.9 points per game on 47% shooting from the field, 43% from beyond the arc, and 91% from the free throw line. Does anybody know this? Those are MVP level numbers; he hasn’t scored that much from the field since his 2015-2016 Unanimous MVP campaign when he averaged 30 PPG.
Last night, he staged a one man run to get the Warriors in striking distance in the final minutes of the OT period.
Steph doing everything he can to keep the Dubs in the game pic.twitter.com/GQYNcyJWwJ
— Warriors on NBCS (@NBCSWarriors) March 30, 2019
STEPH TIES IT! pic.twitter.com/m2idklEPkm
— Warriors on NBCS (@NBCSWarriors) March 30, 2019
Curry gets hot from downtown the same way Michael Jordan used to go supernova from the mid-range. He’s a magical dude!
Sharing is caring
The Warriors had four starters with at least five assists (everyone but DeMarcus Cousins, who had zero). The champs have long used free-flowing ball movement as a weapon, and in the first half it was momentarily demoralizing for the Wolves when the Warriors got hot.
But it also shows a willingness, nay, a devotion to sharing the spotlight in the Golden State that is infectious. Perhaps that ethos of their team culture was what drove the team to make Jordan Bell the team captain for last night’s game. Bell had missed the previous game with a suspension for playing a poor prank on assistant coach Mike Brown, but was honored in his return.
In his first game after suspension, Jordan Bell was selected to go to the pregame captains meeting with Karl-Anthony Towns. pic.twitter.com/IkhgfXZk0m
— Logan Murdock (@loganmmurdock) March 30, 2019
The Warriors just know how to put a smile on people’s faces!
An unusually garbage third quarter
The champs had a trash third quarter that ultimately forced them to rally in the fourth and lose in overtime.
END OF Q3: This game is tied at 86-86, which required quite the collapse from Golden State. Warriors were up 73-54 early in Q3 before giving up a 32-13 run to close the quarter.
— Connor Letourneau (@Con_Chron) March 30, 2019
How unfortunate for the champs that they couldn’t knock Minnesota out in the third period. Normally, we’re used to the Dubs delivering a post-halftime tsunami that washes away any hope for the opposing squad. This time, it was jarring to see it happen in reverse.
Just a brutal third quarter for the Warriors. They go 5-of-20 shooting, commit 8 turnovers, give up 32 points and watch a 14-point halftime lead disappear. It's 86-86 heading to the 4th.
— Anthony Slater (@anthonyVslater) March 30, 2019
Brutal Q3 by Warriors. 0-9 from deep, 8 turnovers, 18 points.
— Monte Poole (@MontePooleNBCS) March 30, 2019
After building a 19pt lead, it's 86-86 entering the fourth.
Yikes. Throughout the game the Warriors had several lulls of poor defense, namely allowing the pick-and-roll ball handler to slice through the paint and score at the rim.
more work to do pic.twitter.com/s3aO5bLgiy
— Timberwolves (@Timberwolves) March 30, 2019
When the Warriors are completely locked in and in an ornery mood, they tend to squash these. Perhaps they let the foot off the gas when their lead ballooned early in the third, or maybe Minnesota just forced their will. Could be a little of both.
"The regular season is kinda lulling us to sleep, we gotta get out of that." pic.twitter.com/Qtm9O8vTSM
— Warriors on NBCS (@NBCSWarriors) March 30, 2019