Successful one recreation — only one — of their second-round playoff sequence in opposition to the Timberwolves with famous person Steph Curry sidelined was all the time going to be a tough job for the Warriors.
And one can’t assist however surprise after the Dubs’ 102-97 loss if the staff’s season was successfully ended by drained legs and tender foul calls.
Did Golden State simply blow its greatest shot to increase the sequence to 6 video games and a attainable (simply attainable) Curry return?
“When (Curry’s) not (playing), there’s no room for error,” Jimmy Butler stated after Saturday’s Sport 3. “You’ll be able to’t make errors. You’ll be able to’t flip the ball over. You’ll be able to’t give again all of these issues. And then you definately’ve acquired to take the proper pictures. You’ve acquired to maneuver the ball the proper approach.
“Because he’s the one individual for sure on this team, and maybe in the league, that can make sure you’re never out of any game.”
And but the Warriors did all of these issues in essential moments.
Worse but, they had been doing so many issues proper earlier than that.
Think about if I had informed you earlier than Sport 3 that:
• Butler was going to shoot the ball 26 instances, rating 33 factors• Jonathan Kuminga would add 30 factors with 3-of-4 taking pictures from past the arc• The Warriors would maintain Minnesota to 43 % taking pictures• Minnesota would finish the sport with extra turnovers than Golden State• The Wolves didn’t management the offensive glass
You’d have presumed the Warriors would have received. It was virtually an ideal state of affairs for the Dubs.
So for that to lose the sport is a intestine punch of the best order.
“We have to put our big boy pants on and go out and compete at a high level and get this one on Monday,” Butler stated.
Butler’s recreation Saturday suggests it may not be a matter of both pants or willpower.
The Warriors had a five-point lead early within the fourth quarter on Saturday. Enjoying by means of Butler on offense and into Draymond Inexperienced on protection, the Dubs had turned the sport right into a low-volume, high-efficiency, only-the-truly-proficient-will-survive playoff basketball recreation. Shorthanded and, within the circumstances of some Dubs, overwhelmed, Golden State was going to steal the sport they wanted.
However when Butler goes 1-for-7 from the ground within the remaining body, together with lacking three pictures on the hoop, and Inexperienced picked up two fouls in a matter of 18 seconds with below 5 minutes to play within the recreation — one through evaluate and the second coming from a can’t-call-that-there choice from referee Mitchell Ervin — the Warriors had been left floundering on either side of the ground. Golden State misplaced the ultimate body by 9 and the sport’s essential moments (minute 5 to 1:17 remaining) by 5.
You’ll be able to’t win within the playoffs with solely three-quarters of a recreation. Not when the margins are as tight as on Saturday.
It has been prompt that Butler was saving his vitality for Sport 3. But, he didn’t have sufficient to get by means of the total recreation Saturday. When the Warriors wanted him most, his legs weren’t there to make the pictures wanted to win.
How can anybody anticipate him to have a giant Sport 4 given the circumstances?
I can admire Butler’s therapeutic ritual of dominoes, espresso, and children (I don’t drink espresso and my youngsters have allowed me to seek out new ranges of exhaustion, however enjoying dominoes sounds enjoyable!), however with due deference to his harm, the output has not been regular this postseason. His success is just not an every-other-game circumstance, however it’s not far off. And Sport 3 was an “on” recreation.
And if the Warriors don’t win Sport 4, there’s next-to-zero probability they’re profitable three straight to assert the sequence — with or with out Curry. It’s merely an excessive amount of to ask this staff, with all its inconsistencies, to make such a comeback.
As such, the stakes couldn’t be larger for the Dubs forward of Monday’s recreation. The season is certainly on the road, however Butler is exhausted, Inexperienced is misplaced on offense with out Curry and missing the foot pace to execute all the pieces he needs on the defensive finish with out being topic to the whistle, and the Warriors’ offense is now operating the identical type of no-movement, drive-and-kick-with-a-bigger-ball-handler stuff that the Lakers did within the first-round in opposition to Minnesota — a five-game “gentleman’s” sweep for the Timberwolves, regardless of Minnesota’s offensive ineptitude within the sequence.
That is dire stuff, and all of the Warriors can moderately do is pray that Kuminga, Brandin Podziemski, and Buddy Hield step up (or within the case of Kuminga, keep up) and save the season.
Maybe they’ll — this postseason has been a gentle sequence of surprises, each good and unhealthy.
The way in which Monday is shaping up, they’ll want a very good shock for Sport 4.
Initially Revealed: Could 11, 2025 at 3:02 PM PDT
