It feels disingenuous to say the Golden State Warriors were short-handed on Saturday night against the Minnesota Timberwolves when you consider that Stephen Curry, Kevin Durant, and Klay Thompson were all on the court. But indeed, the team currently sporting the best record in the NBA (15-2) played undermanned with defensive anchor Draymond Green out of the lineup due to a left ankle contusion. Green’s absence forced the Warriors to adjust how they approached the game, but the outcome was all the same as the star-laden, veteran Golden State team was able to thwart Minnesota’s upset bid and improve their league-best win streak to 11 straight.
Here are 10 thoughts on the game:
1. It took the Warriors the entire first quarter to adjust to life without Draymond. In the opening stanza, the Dubs gave up 33 points and allowed the Wolves to shoot 62 percent from the field. With Green out and Kevon Looney in the starting lineup to defend second-year stud Karl-Anthony Towns, Steve Kerr elected to send a hard double at KAT, which sent the rest of the Warriors scrambling to guard open shooters. For the first 12 minutes, the T-Wolves were able to make the Warriors pay, at one point opening up a five-point advantage. But in the second and third quarters, Golden State’s defense clamped down and the offense ratcheted it up. Kevin Durant slid to the power forward position, doing his best Draymond Green impression, as the Dubs reeled off a 21-6 run for a lead the Warriors would never relinquish.
2. KD reminded everyone why the Warriors spent a year recruiting him and why they busted up their roster to secure his services. Durant scored his usual 28 points on a hyper-efficient 10-of-17 shooting on offense, but defensively he showed just how much higher he can raise this team’s ceiling. With Draymond out, KD had to assume that do-everything role from the 4-spot, even though this meant he had to guard Towns, someone that probably outweighs him by 40 pounds. Durant did an admirable job on that front, especially with the help of a double team. After scoring 12 points in the first quarter, Towns was held to only six the rest of the way. Durant snagged 10 rebounds, swatted away six Minnesota attempts, and collected five assists. It was a monster two-way effort that showed off Durant’s explosive all-around game.
3. Similar to last year, the Warriors don’t really have a power forward off the bench. Durant is currently Green’s back up, like Harrison Barnes was last season. If Looney can fill in 10-15 minutes a game at the four without killing the team, it would help to reduce the amount of wear-and-tear for both KD and Dray. Looney (6 points, 3 boards, 18 minutes) did a decent job defensively on Towns (forcing misses on back-to-back possessions in the first quarter), and Kerr was comfortable with him getting switched onto Andrew Wiggins on the perimeter. If Looney can play sound defense and continue to develop that 3-point stroke (he hit one against the Lakers), he’ll find minutes in the rotation.
4. It’s not that I dislike Kerr playing his entire 15-man squad; he spent the bulk of his career off the bench and sees value in keeping every one invested in a common goal. I get that. I just wish Anderson Varejao wasn’t on the team. In his brief 4-minute run, the Warriors, as you’d expect, went from up four to down three.
5. And that’s while another back-up center (whose actually good at basketball) had to wait before getting his chance to impact the game. JaVale McGee, just by his 7-foot presence and athletic ability, was able to make the Wolves think twice before traipsing into the lane, and on offense, he made a beeline for the rim at every opportunity, dragging a defender with him and opening up Warriors shooters as a result. McGee finished with eight points, five rebounds, one block and a plus-11 in only 11 minutes of run.
6. Steph’s 17-point third-quarter eruption drove the final nail in the Wolves’ coffin. After another so-so shooting performance in LA, the MVP dumped 34 points on the young Wolves on an incendiary 13-of-19 shooting. Klay Thompson chipped in with a casual 23.
7. One day after Zach Lavine dunked all over Alex Len, his running mate Andrew Wiggins did him one better with a vicious tomahawk at the expense of JaVale. That’s the price that comes with manning the middle.
8. KD: rim protector. Averaging a career-best 1.8 rejections. Six blocks last night, 12 in the last five games.
9. Without Dray to orchestrate the offense, the streak of 30-plus-assist games came to an end at 10. The Warriors “only” had 25 on the night. (Charlotte, second in team-assists per game in the NBA, averages 24.7 a contest.)
10. The Warriors soft, squishy schedule finally gets a bit tougher with Atlanta, Houston, and LAC coming up in the next five games (34-15 combined record). With Draymond and Ian Clark ailing, will the Dubs still be on this winning streak when they clash with the Clippers in LA on December 7?