Warriors vs. Timberwolves: Score, Highlights and Reaction from 2015 Season
Stephen Curry is a Martian sent to this planet to overload our brains with basketball insanity that is impossible to comprehend.
OK, maybe not, but close enough.
Curry finished with a game-high 46 points, and the Golden State Warriors made 18 three-pointers as the defending NBA champions put on a show in defeating the young Minnesota Timberwolves, 129-116, at the Target Center on Thursday.
The high in Minneapolis on Thursday was 44 degrees. For such a cool day, the league's reigning MVP was as hot as the sun in the first quarter. Curry scored 21 points in the game's opening frame, shooting 6-of-9 from the floor and making four of five three-point attempts. Here's the shot chart, courtesy of ESPN Stats & Info:
The Warriors are now 10-0, their best start in franchise history, and Curry has scored 20 or more points in a quarter four times already this year. Oklahoma City Thunder point guard Russell Westbrook led the NBA with four 20-point quarters last season, per ESPN Stats & Info.
Curry has now scored 333 points so far this year, which are the most through that span to start an NBA campaign since Michael Jordan scored 338 in 1992, per Josh Dubow of the Associated Press. Thursday also marked the third time this season Curry has made at least eight three-pointers in a game, per Ben Golliver of Sports Illustrated. The rest of the NBA has zero.
Golden State put on a basketball clinic in the first half. Not only did the Warriors shoot just under 64 percent from the floor, but they hardly turned the ball over and put on a passing display for the Minnesota crowd, per Warriors sideline reporter Rosalyn Gold-Onwude:
But though this turned out to be a one-sided affair dominated by the champs, it was a chance for the national audience to see Andrew Wiggins, Karl-Anthony Towns and the young Timberwolves, who have been fun to watch in the early stages of the season.
Wiggins continued his recent hot streak with 19 points and is now averaging 27.6 points in his last three games. Towns also continued to solidify his early Rookie of the Year campaign with 17 points and 11 rebounds for his sixth double-double in his first eight career games. HBO's Bill Simmons had some high praise for the young, dynamic Wolves duo:
Even though those were two bright spots for Minnesota, there was absolutely nothing the Timberwolves could do on a night when Curry was making shots like this:
And this:
There was even nothing they could do when there was a flying Australian big man in Andrew Bogut coming out of nowhere to posterize No. 1 overall pick Towns:
Just when we think we've seen everything from Curry, he continues to amaze. Former Grantland contributor Shea Serrano feels the same way:
It's unfair to have expected anything but a dominant Warriors victory, but it's the way Golden State continues to win that's impressive. Eight of the Warriors' 10 wins have been decided by double digits, and Curry continues to be the focal point in each.
Something special is brewing with these Warriors. It's unclear whether they can sustain it for 72 more games, but it's been spectacular so far.
Postgame Reaction
It needs to be understood: What the world is seeing from Curry is beyond remarkable. It's next to legendary.
Through 10 games, he's made 52 threes. If he were to continue making threes at this pace, he would finish the year with roughly 426, shattering his record of 286 from last year.
"When you get up on him, he just shoots the ball from farther," said Timberwolves forward Shabazz Muhammad, per the Associated Press (via ESPN.com). "It looked like he was shooting it from dang near halfcourt."
After Thursday's effort, Curry is just two three-pointers shy of the number of three-pointers his father, Dell, made in well under half the games, per ESPN Stats & Info:
That's absurd. What's also absurd is the collection of players that makes up the Golden State Warriors. On a night when Curry brought down the house, Draymond Green nearly got a triple-double with 23 points, 12 assists and eight rebounds. Curry has been getting all of the attention, and rightfully so, but Green is becoming a dangerous option.
"It seems like those guys, when you make a mistake, they punish you," Minnesota interim head coach Sam Mitchell said, per the Associated Press.
If you think Golden State has peaked, ask Curry, who had this to say after the game, per SB Nation:
You cannot get much better than 80 percent of your wins being decided by more than 10 points.
A championship hangover, as well as an MVP hangover, would be understandable. Instead, the Warriors look better than they did last year, as does Curry.
"He's always in attack mode," Warriors interim coach Luke Walton said about Curry, per the Associated Press. "And he's definitely playing at an MVP level again right now."
This isn't to say they're going to get 72 wins, but if there's a team that could come as close as any squad's ever come to the 1995-96 Chicago Bulls' total, it's this Golden State team.
