SAN FRANCISCO – Going through a 2-1 deficit after dropping Sport 3 of their second-round sequence in opposition to the Timberwolves on Saturday night time, the Warriors spoke with a tinge of remorse as they made sense of what went incorrect.
Jimmy Butler, who flashed classic “Playoff Jimmy” kind by scoring 30 factors, talked in a low voice as he seemed on the field rating that learn “Minnesota 102, Golden State 97” from the postgame podium.
“Didn’t get the shots we wanted to get, turned the ball over a few times, didn’t contest shots, didn’t take the three out of the game, and that was it,” Butler monotoned.
After being comparatively quiet in Video games 1 and a couple of of this Western Convention semifinal sequence, he had change into the playoff hero the Warriors had been promised after they traded for Butler in February.
He fired up near 30 photographs, taking over the lead ballhandling position as Steph Curry was shackled to the sidelines with a left hamstring pressure and doing the whole lot he may to will the Warriors to victory in 43 minutes.
It was not sufficient.
“Twenty-six shots, 36 shots, next time, it has to be in a win,” Butler remarked.
Disappointment pervaded the Warriors’ locker room, however despair was nowhere to be discovered.
As a workforce with veteran leaders like Butler and Draymond Inexperienced, the gamers appeared sure they might keep within the sequence regardless of Curry’s harm.
“We can compete without Steph,” Butler mentioned. “We’re still as confident as ever.”
Assured or not, the loss nonetheless stung.
The Warriors overcame their 0-for-5 capturing from 3-point distance and led 42-40 at halftime in a recreation the place Curry’s lack of shot creation was evident.
After 36 minutes, the Warriors led 73-69 after Hield and the workforce’s shooters went 6-for-11 from lengthy vary within the third interval.
An inconceivable sequence lead was there for the taking, and the Warriors knew it.
“We had the game in front of us,” the usually upbeat Hield mentioned somberly.
His thoughts wandered to a fourth quarter by which the Warriors led 82-77 with eight minutes remaining after Butler made a pair of free throws.
The lead disappeared in a 9-0 Minnesota run that noticed Anthony Edwards rating 5 factors, together with an enormous dunk that had been two of the extra emphatic of his game-high 36 factors.
Coach Steve Kerr rued his workforce’s incapacity to seize unfastened balls, one thing that has plagued the Warriors for a month. An offensive rebound by veteran Mike Conley early within the fourth, which resulted in a Naz Reid 3-pointer and stored the deficit to only 5, stood out in Kerr’s thoughts.
“I thought that was the sequence that really shifted the game and the momentum,” Kerr mentioned. “Thirteen offensive boards for them, 26 points that. Was a big factor in the fourth.”
Inexperienced fouling out within the fourth quarter didn’t assist the Warriors’ trigger. Two of his fouls got here from replay opinions and the sixth whereas contesting a shot on the rim.
It was a troublesome growth throughout a making an attempt week for the veteran ahead, who was the topic of racial abuse by two spectators in Minneapolis throughout Sport 2.
“The sixth one was a tough one,” Kerr mentioned. “That didn’t feel great looking at the replay, but it is what it is and they outplayed us in the fourth and they deserved to win.”
The fourth-quarter collapse overshadowed what was a profession night time for 22-year-old ahead Jonathan Kuminga, who went from being out of the rotation to scoring 33 factors on simply 18 photographs.
Whether or not Kuminga was driving for dunks, making powerful layups or burying 3-pointers, the Wolves had no reply for the fourth-year ahead who mentioned his ankle is beginning to really feel wholesome. The harm induced Kuminga to overlook 31 video games in the course of the season.
Kuminga credited Butler for serving to him thrive, though Butler’s presence was an enormous motive Kuminga’s position was decreased.
“It’s kind of actually easy,” Kuminga mentioned. “It’s just the same way as Steph … you’ve got another player with Jimmy, and they are two different people, but they attract so much attention, you’ve just got to be alert when they’ve got the ball.”
Kuminga and Hield had been the one gamers who seemed like they knew easy methods to play with Butler on offense throughout Saturday’s recreation. The opposite 5 Warriors who performed mixed for simply 20 factors on 26 photographs.
The Warriors will want one other massive recreation from Kuminga — and a bounce-back recreation from 1-for-10 capturing Brandin Podziemski — to even the sequence. They’ve a day of relaxation to determine what else must go proper.
Going through a potential 3-1 sequence deficit won’t issue into that preparation.
“I’m not going to tell my guys to be desperate or any more urgent than anything,” Butler mentioned. “You go out there and you play basketball and you hoop.”
