Warriors veteran takes double-digit lead again, stumbles in Minnesota

Warriors veteran takes double-digit lead again, stumbles in Minnesota

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MINNEAPOLIS — This was the fourth-quarter turnover that Steve Kerr and Stephen Curry identified as the spark that ignited the Timberwolves’ fuse and turned the momentum around. With less than 11 minutes remaining, the Warriors had a 13-minute lead.

The clip begins with Draymond Green absorbing a chest bump and Naz Reed missing a layup. He grabs the rebound and proudly shakes his head toward Reed. It’s a hard-earned stop. But before Green could celebrate it, Reed was coming downhill toward him again. Reid intercepted it. He scored seconds later.

“It drove the crowd crazy,” said Curry.

D’Angelo Russell poured in several 3s and layups in the next few minutes to take Minnesota back. Those eight of his points came after Donte Di Vincenzo was forced to slow the movement of the ball in the late minutes, Jonathan Cuminga committed a foul screen and Andrew Wiggins missed his three. rice field.

Revisiting the Warriors’ 4th Quarter Possession. It’s almost all bad crime. They scored 17 points, missed all five 3s, committed six turnovers in a fateful 12 minutes, lost the quarter by 11, sent it to overtime, and gave the Timberwolves a 119-114 win. .

“We were in control of the game, so I thought we gift-wrapped it,” Kerr said. I stopped doing everything I was doing to control the game up to that point.Run.I know it’s just a catchphrase.Or whatever you want to call it.But , it’s true. It must be done.”

Timberwolves were up by 1 with 2:35 remaining. The Warriors inbounded it. Minnesota didn’t even press. Green handed the ball to Curry and set the court up. Curry decided he didn’t want it. Green and Kevon Looney were jogging on opposite sides of the court. He threw it in their direction. Neither expected it. It dripped past the limit, which is the definition of an unenforced error.

Curry called the turnover a “misunderstanding.” Overtime had another miscommunication turnover rate. Green and Curry — a two-man he is known for unparalleled synergy in the game — failed to sync up on his third-down inbound with 1:27 remaining. Curry threw it to the green. I thought the green was round and left a bounce path. Curry stuttered. Green picked up the pass. Officials called it a trip.

These are huge, unforced mistakes in key moments that wipe out valuable wins and instead pass them to the closest team in the standings. . But this is the latest disappointment in a season full of them.

Let’s count some collapses.

• With less than a minute remaining, the Warriors lead the Hornets by 4 points in Charlotte. As Green said after the game, the Dynasty Warriors are unlikely to lose their winning grip when he’s leading by two possessions with less than 60 seconds remaining. However, they had some defensive blunders, Curry went looking for a hero ball and missed it, Charlotte tied it and beat them in overtime.

• Three games later, the Warriors had a 15 lead on the Magic late in the third quarter with 1:35 remaining, even after blowing a double-digit cushion. But Jalen Suggs filled in a crucial pair of his threes and Klay Thompson missed a runner on the buzzer to seal another collapse.

• Curry hit a 3 in Dallas with less than two minutes left to take the lead by two. But they were unable to score a stop in the second half, and on the night’s most important possession, Curry sought his travel pivot foot to put another possible win on their loss column. was given. That was the night they traveled seven times.

• In the worst of the season, the Warriors led the Jazz by four in Utah with less than 10 seconds remaining, but Thompson lost focus and trailed Malik Beasley by three. The Jazz pulled the ensuing inbound off Jordan Poole to score a right. before the buzzer that stunned the Warriors.

• Saddiq Bey hit a turnaround game-winning 3 at the buzzer to give the Pistons the win at Chase Center 13-39. His 2 of his 13 wins over them have been against the Warriors.

• In Boston, the Warriors lead in the 11th half, 9 points with 6 minutes left, 4 points with under 2 minutes left, and 3 points on a Curry layup with 28 seconds left. However, Wiggins and Poole had a communication failure on their way back down the court and were unable to hit Jaylen Brown’s wide for his open tying three. .

• The second of those double-digit blown leads came against the Nets (without Kevin Durant) at Chase Center. The Warriors led by 17 in the second half, and he led by 12 with less than six minutes remaining. But Brooklyn closed the game on a 22-6 run as Curry and Thompson committed costly turnovers and missed out on various rushed and isolated looks.

• The third of those double-digit blown leads came to the Timberwolves on Wednesday night. They trailed him by 11 in the fourth quarter and five in overtime. The offense hit the skid and in the final 17 minutes he only scored 21 points and missed all 10 of his 3 attempts. They had only 9 turnovers and 2 assists in the 4th quarter and overtime.

“We are not good enough to win without execution,” Kerr said. “We could have been years ago. We’re not good enough now.”

“It’s a reminder of the little things on the road that it takes to win,” Curry said. “We didn’t do it.”

They have only done it a few times. Here are eight separate instances of him above. You can’t expect none of the eight to happen in an 82-game season. But if he flips at least five of his eight, the Warriors will go 31-20, not 26-25. Everything would feel very different if the veterans just took care of the business late.

“That’s the difference in the narrative that surrounds our team,” Curry admitted. has a lot of responsibility on the floor to the point of not being able to get it done. But we didn’t let us down for too long.

It’s fair to wonder if fatigue was a factor. Kerr had a condensed rotation in Minnesota, trimming Anthony Lamb and adding Curry, Poole, Thompson, Wiggins, Green, Rooney, DiVincenzo and Cuminga in the second half. Kerr hunted this down as the bigger names were likely to rest Thursday night in Denver, but didn’t believe fatigue played a factor in the loss.

“No. No,” said Carr. “The game went to extra time, and Steph and Klay went to 42 and 40 minutes. I just thought we weren’t mentally sharp.”

(Photo by Andrew Wiggins and Anthony Edwards: David Berding / Getty Images)



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