Well, it appears the honeymoon is over. Two-straight losses and this one most certainly worse than the last. The Wolves had their opportunities, but they weren't able to sustain anything offensively as they looked disjointed and out of wack all night long. The Wolves were able to keep it close through three quarters. Stephen Curry injured his foot and was in an out all night, before retiring to the locker room with a bone bruise in his foot to end his night. That didn't matter much though. With no Curry throughout the third quarter and for the entire fourth quarter, his backcourt partner Klay Thompson took over and sealed the deal. Klay scored 19 of his 30 points in the final quarter. That was also 19 of Golden State's 27 fourth quarter points to waltz away with the victory. The Wolves let Klay beat them on a number of mid-range jumpers and three-point bombs. As Minnesota went down by double digits, they didn't seem to have much fight in them. As such, they collected the loss, their second-straight. There's no question that Minnesota's offense is one of the best in the NBA, but when they can't execute it, they have to rely on their defense and that's not something we want to happen, evident in tonight's contest. The Wolves' offense did have stretches where they played well and that usually came when Andrew Bogut was on the bench in foul trouble. Bogut did foul out and had 4 in the first half. Let's take a look at tonight's box score... The Warriors offense got going in the second half and a lot of that was thanks to their defense. Their points off turnovers sparked a number of fast break buckets. The Wolves actually forced more turnovers, but the Warriors outscored the Wolves 10-26 in points off turnovers.
Initial thoughts were that this Timberwolves squad was going to be an excellent rebounding team, but that really hasn't been the case early in the season. Tonight was more of the same as they were out-rebounded once again, a +9. One of Minnesota's big problems is their bench. The offense goes to shambles when they take Love & Martin off the floor. There's no reason that a second unit headlined by Derrick Williams & J.J. Barea shouldn't be able to put more than 10 points on the board. The Warriors' bench scored 27 on the night and had 17 of those in the first half. Minnesota shooting 37.8% from the field & 25% from deep further compounded the problems. It was just an ugly game for the Wolves, through and through. That's all for now, the Wolves will be back in action on Friday night when they'll take on Dirk Nowitzki & the Dallas Mavericks. Until then, thanks for reading HOWL and GO WOLVES!
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Cody D. AndersonA Wolves fan bringing you Gameday Recaps all season long! 2014-15 Game ArchivesGameday Archives
December 2015
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