2025 NBA PLAYOFFS West Semifinals: #6 Minnesota Timberwolves vs #7 Golden State Warriors (GSW leads 1-0)

[Kobe187]

The coach has to call out Ant

He had Jimmy freakin Butler glued to him, did a pretty good job considering that. Butler shutdown Edwards, Draymond shutdown Randle, Warriors D was just too good, they cruised through game 1.

It shouldn’t be that easy to shut down the new face of the NBA

Minny will make tweaks, Ant should have a better game 2.

[Mamba Mentality]

I don't think there is much you can take away from game 1, it was about as bizarre of a NBA game as I've watched all season. Draymond Green had more threes than all of Minnesota through 3 quarters and quite literally carried the Warriors offense for a stretch, Hield led all scorers for the second straight game, Ant didn't make a single fg in the first half and played like he was shell shocked...I'll gladly eat crow if any of that repeats itself. It was the perfect storm for the Warriors to weather a major injury.

Finch will have a much easier time gameplanning for the Warriors without Curry. They'll find a way to break the Warriors zone and hit a lot of the open shots they missed in game 1. Right now they're favored by 10, I think they'll comfortably cover that.

Way too many overreactions in this thread. I still don't see a Finals team when I look at this Warriors roster.

I will not be surprised if Curry doesn't play for 2+ games and TWolves take the series and ESPN and some fanatics here would hail Ant Edwards as the Kings Slayer, Chef Killer etc etc even if he average 18 pts at 42% FG%.

Think Curry’s back for game 2, seemed like a mild hamstring issue, was testing it out on the sidelines before going into the locker room.

I would be shocked if he doesn't miss atleast 1-2 games. Warriors already did what they needed to do which was steal homecourt, there's no incentive to rush him back and risk reaggrevation.

[cupcakesnake]

Twolves just weren't focused properly from the start, and strangely never got going in the 2nd half either. They should still win if they can find their form from the prior series. If they don't, well then, they deserve to lose. Now I understand WHY their regular season record was worse than I would have expected. Having better talent is one thing. It's manifestation is another.

We kind of got going a few times in the second half. Our runs were just never quite sustained long enough to take the game back. We'd go on a little 10-2 run, and then the Warriors would hit 2 3s and we'd miss a layup. We brought the game to single digits a few times and I'd feel: ok the Wolves can take this back if they want, but then they'd fall just short of an extended, momentum stealing run. We won the 4th quarter handily, but it was too late.

We had a brief run where Rudy dominated the little guys on him, and another moment where Naz was finally taking the lid of the net with some threes. We were pretty gun shy in the 4th, and tried to get back to driving, which worked somewhat, but we also lost track of Buddy Hield and had 16 points in the quarter.

[cupcakesnake]

The Warriors look unbeatable no matter who's playing. I don't think anyone can beat them even if Steph doesn't play another game this year. But he'll definitely be back next game. Denver and OKC playing to see who will get destroyed next round. It's over for the league unless Boston can get their **** together especially Porzingis. Crazy how Jimmy wins a ring 4 months after leaving Miami

Celtics were the only team that could slow down the Dubs. I've been saying it since Butler got there. They look like the dynasty Warriors. Chemistry through the roof. The old Steph returned. Dray playing DPOY level basketball. Butler is basically Klay only better.

So much for the Wolves. No matter who they play, they make their opponents look bad.

And their role players look unstoppable AND they have the most elite defense in the league, on top of having Steph and Butler. The definition of a complete championship team

This is histrionic level hype.

[dWadeOwnzYou]

I don't think there is much you can take away from game 1, it was about as bizarre of a NBA game as I've watched all season. Draymond Green had more threes than all of Minnesota through 3 quarters and quite literally carried the Warriors offense for a stretch, Hield led all scorers for the second straight game, Ant didn't make a single fg in the first half and played like he was shell shocked...I'll gladly eat crow if any of that repeats itself. It was the perfect storm for the Warriors to weather a major injury.

Finch will have a much easier time gameplanning for the Warriors without Curry. They'll find a way to break the Warriors zone and hit a lot of the open shots they missed in game 1. Right now they're favored by 10, I think they'll comfortably cover that.

Way too many overreactions in this thread. I still don't see a Finals team when I look at this Warriors roster.

I will not be surprised if Curry doesn't play for 2+ games and TWolves take the series and ESPN and some fanatics here would hail Ant Edwards as the Kings Slayer, Chef Killer etc etc even if he average 18 pts at 42% FG%.

Think Curry’s back for game 3, seemed like a mild hamstring issue, was testing it out on the sidelines before going into the locker room, didn’t seem too serious.

No way, they're going to risk re-injuring that hamstring no matter how mild it maybe. Your goal was to steal home court and they did that. I wouldn't play him until 5 game, with 3 days in between game 4 and 5. I believe that's what they will try to aim for.

BTW, did I mention I can't stand that Kuminga guy?

[___Rand___]

Twolves just weren't focused properly from the start, and strangely never got going in the 2nd half either. They should still win if they can find their form from the prior series. If they don't, well then, they deserve to lose. Now I understand WHY their regular season record was worse than I would have expected. Having better talent is one thing. It's manifestation is another.

We kind of got going a few times in the second half. Our runs were just never quite sustained long enough to take the game back. We'd go on a little 10-2 run, and then the Warriors would hit 2 3s and we'd miss a layup. We brought the game to single digits a few times and I'd feel: ok the Wolves can take this back if they want, but then they'd fall just short of an extended, momentum stealing run. We won the 4th quarter handily, but it was too late.

We had a brief run where Rudy dominated the little guys on him, and another moment where Naz was finally taking the lid of the net with some threes. We were pretty gun shy in the 4th, and tried to get back to driving, which worked somewhat, but we also lost track of Buddy Hield and had 16 points in the quarter.

The whole team was disjointed and unfocused from the start. Sloppy layups unforced turnovers are all indications of lack of focus. They never got it going in 2nd half either which tells me Finch didn't scream in their face in the locker room. Finch is right in blaming Ant for lack of leadership - when you have a young still maturing player as leader of the team (Gobert and Conley aren't leader types) this is what you get. But Finch only got this half right. This is also what you get when your COACH isn't good at motivating a team properly. Mental preparation is just as important as Xs and Os. Wolves just fumbled this one badly. I'm sure they can get back on track game 2. If they don't, I'm going to get my sleep on east coast.

[Mamba Mentality]

I swear everytime the Wolves tried to make a run in the second half the Warriors hit some crazy shot. The one that sticks out for me is three that Jimmy banked from the top of the key while foul baiting. **** like that is just demoralizing.

[___Rand___]

This season is the first time ever that all four home teams lost Game 1 in the Conference Semifinals.


https://bsky.app/profile/basketball-reference.com/post/3loloer3gf22r

[giberish]

Golden State had 51 rebounds, Minnesota had 41.

ANT leading the team in rebounds with 14? Where is Randle and Jaden McDaniels?

Golbert, Randle, and McDaniel need to wake up. Pathetic!

3-point Shooting:
Golden State 18-42 (43%)
Minnesota 5-29 (17%)

Randle and McDaniel go 0-6 from three. Rebounding?

Sent from my SM-S928U1 using RealGM mobile app

GS was a better rebounding team than Minny during the regular season. Expectations that Minny would dominate the boards were skewed by the 1st round matchups - Houston was the best rebounding team in the league so they easily outrebounded GS, while the Lakers were a very poor rebounding team.

[Scoundreldays]

Id be surprised if Steph came back Game 3. Back in 2018 when Chris Paul hurt his he missed both games 6 and 7. In 2021 Harden tried coming back and was useless.

[Dan33185]

The coach has to call out Ant

He had Jimmy freakin Butler glued to him, did a pretty good job considering that. Butler shutdown Edwards, Draymond shutdown Randle, Warriors D was just too good, they cruised through game 1.

It shouldn’t be that easy to shut down the new face of the NBA

23 points and 14 rebounds is "shutting down" someone?

[bisme37]

I imagine this has been discussed but yikes. Gotta think these dudes will start hitting shots soon.

Read on Twitter

[DB23]

Call me a salty fan after a bad loss, but I'm pretty annoyed reading all these takes trying to analyze the series based off this chaotic game 1.

Game 1 was complete random chaos, and despite one team getting a win, I think this was bad for both teams on several levels.

- The Warriors lost Steph Curry, possibly for multiple games. That is the most brutal thing that could have happened in game 1 for the Warriors. Obviously they stole game 1, stole homecourt advantage... that's a big deal and gives them a serious foothold in this series. Sometimes you win in weird ways and you take it. But man to lose Curry, and win in a way where much does not feel replicatable, I'm a little shocked to people being like "wow the Warriors are going to the finals".

- Despite an inconsistent defensive effort from the Wolves, the Warriors offense did not work. They built their big lead in the 2nd quarter by Draymond Green hitting 4 threes! Draymond scored over half their points in the quarter. That's not a thing the Warriors can lean on. Jimmy Butler also struggled with the length of the Wolves. Buddy Hield being backup Steph Curry really worked though. Putting Buddy in the same aggressive movement shooting sets they run for Steph is something they can absolutely lean on. Wolves will try to target Buddy better in game 2, but he's going to be a problem in this offense. If I'm a Warriors fan, I don't come away from this game being like: yeah we can totally do something like this 3 more times. Warriors will need to establish Jimmy in game 2.

- The Wolves, a top 5 3pt shooting team in the regular season, didn't hit a 3 in the first half. 0 for 15. I'll credit the Warriors for speeding the Wolves up, but this was like... 2018 Houston type of bball voodoo. When the Wolves shoot average from 3 (like they did in the second half), they're fine against the Warriors defense.

- On the Wolves side...we're now shooting 30% on threes in the playoffs. The drive and kick machine is still functional, but at some point you have to start knocking down looks. Also the defense was super inconsistent in this one. Anthony Edwards sulked like Embiid after a cold shooting start, but did bounce back in the second half with 22 points. We need Ant to be our main pressure point, and that means drive the damn ball and kick when they overload you.

Last night was pretty depressing to watch, but it also felt so crazy that I'm not going to overreact to it. The Wolves are capable of th

With curry out it obviously skews everything moving forward.

But I feel somewhat vindicated by people underrating our defense. Kerr also schooled Finch in this one which was predictable.

I’m sure the wolves would have played better anyway but this game shows that the dubs were hardly physically over matched.

[AbeVigodaLive]

I imagine this has been discussed but yikes. Gotta think these dudes will start hitting shots soon.

Read on Twitter

- Minnesota failed to make at least 9 three pointers only once in the first 82 games. (7 vs Por). They've failed to make 8 three pointers in 3 of the past 5 games.
- Minnesota averaged 15 three pointers over the first 82 games. They're averaging 8.8 over their past 5 games.
- Minnesota was on a 7 - 63 (11%) stretch on threes over 6 quarters... before getting "hot" in the 2nd half to bump the percentage to nearly 16%.

[tamaraw08]

He had Jimmy freakin Butler glued to him, did a pretty good job considering that. Butler shutdown Edwards, Draymond shutdown Randle, Warriors D was just too good, they cruised through game 1.

It shouldn’t be that easy to shut down the new face of the NBA

23 points and 14 rebounds is "shutting down" someone?

no one can shut down the King's Slayer but can possibly only slow him down a bit,
but he did needed 22 attempts to score 23 pts, made 1 FG when the Warriors were surging in the first half?
Also had 2 assists to 3 turnovers.

[Castle Black]

Read on Twitter

[Mamba Mentality]

Recovery is anywhere from days to 2 weeks. Assuming that the Wolves take game 2, I think the best case scenerio is the Warriors split the home games and Curry comes back game 5.

[chrisab123]

Warriors have Butler. They don’t need Steph. Warriors are going to the finals.

[cgf]

The coach has to call out Ant

He had Jimmy freakin Butler glued to him, did a pretty good job considering that. Butler shutdown Edwards, Draymond shutdown Randle, Warriors D was just too good, they cruised through game 1.

It shouldn’t be that easy to shut down the new face of the NBA

Ant started to figure it out in the 2nd half. The warriors are the smarter team and can pressure the ball well when the refs swallow their whistles, but the kid got it going. Warriors will need to be even better to keep him quiet the longer this series goes on.

[Mamba81p]

Grade 1 is best news given the circumstances. It means he should be back for game 6 if there is one. Game 3 might be tough but who knows.