Can Timberwolves change the series’s impulse while Stephen Curry fails?

Minneapolis – Since Steph Curry fails from a tense left thigh for at least a week, the Timberwolves seem to have the Golden State Warriors exactly where they want them.

Or vice versa.

On a playoff opponent who lost his best player only 13 minutes after the series, you could think. Golden State has been based on Curry for more than a decade and probably drives the biggest shooter in the league, which had four championships ever in seven seasons.

The magician/tormentor with a visual eye width on his 3-point shot is an eleven-time all-star and at the age of 37 is still one of the strongest goal scorers and toughest cover in the league. Now he is lost for at least the next three games in the best-of-Seven Western Western Conference semi-final for the Warriors.

Curry hobbled off the square at 8:19 a.m. in the second quarter of the opening for Tuesday at the Target Center and packed his left skin a few times. An MRI test on Wednesday revealed a strain on the first class and the team said he was re -evaluated in a week.

With the games that are half planned in the conference than in the first round, a week could feel like an eternity for golden state. After game 2 on Thursday (8:30 ET, TNT), the series moves to San Francisco for games 3 and 4 Saturday and Monday.

Game 5 would be back in Minnesota on Wednesday, May 13th, eight days after Curry’s injury. If his recovery from this soft tissue injury were left behind, his return could fall under the same heading-“if necessary”-as potential games 6 and/or 7.

There is a reason why Warriors trainer Steve Kerr, who came to Curry after halftime after the veteran’s abrupt departure, simply hugged him. Later Kerr used the word “crushed” to describe Curry’s mood.

“It’s hard,” said team -mate Jimmy Butler. “One of the biggest ones who have ever done and he wants to be out there. I think he knows and we know how much easier the game is for us when it accumulates at a high level.”

Golden State then has to get through these impending games on the hard tour. Minnesota would now be advisable not to exhale or to expect that something is easier without curry admitting her.

“I know that if we play teams without their best players, we sometimes fight,” said Wing Jaden McDaniels. “So only treat Buddy (HILD) like Steph and don’t let him have a game (24 points), as he did last game.

Do not pay attention to the Las Vegas quota makers who actually reacted to the injury messages by making the wolves even more difficult in the series. This should not happen if a team drops the opening game – at home. But that’s an integral curry for everything the warriors do.

The last time that the leading 3-point shooter of the NBA suffered a serious setback for injuries, came in October 2019. He suffered a broken hand and played in just five games this season. Golden State went 15-50.

A newer sample, although much smaller: in the games that Curry missed this season, the Warriors went 7-5.

During his career, Golden State went 104-51 when Curry played back until 2013. Playing in the 12 post-sowers that he missed is 9-3.

“Playoffs are about adapting each year whether it is a game plan or an injury,” said Kerr on Wednesday. “We have done that before.

“It is only up to us to adapt and find out.”

Golden State did this in the game in game 1. The Warriors led 30-20 when Curry left the game. Then they have exceeded the wolves 69-68 in the last 32 minutes.

“He had 13 points in 13 minutes,” said Donte Divincenzo from Minnesota. “Then they stepped into the ass for the rest of the night.”

A day later, after a video check, the Wolves players and trainers with their collective performance seemed to be disgusting enough that they would bring a more intensive and assertive version of themselves in game 2. Curry or no curry. Do not expect Anthony Edwards to move again through a 1-point half.

“We were beaten in the possession and that had nothing to do with whether Steph was on the floor or not,” said coach Chris Finch. “Also in the transition. … There are many things that we have to improve.”

Divincenzo said: “The things we can change are very changeable.”

Both Kerr and Finch shared video clips with the league and made reporters complaints about what they thought was excessively physically. It sounded like Gamansmanship: Minnesota knows that the Warriors have to slow down the pace and have to make the game up as they did in the second half on Tuesday to win in the future. Golden State wants the play officials to concentrate on the home team while clogging the middle to ward off the drives of Edwards and remain as possible.

“We think we have the best defense in the league,” said Kerr. “This has been proven in the past few months based on defensive efficiency, but also because of our trust in Draymond (green) behind the play and Jimmy. We have to insult our D and then find various ways to attack Steph.”

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Steve Aschburner has written about the NBA since 1980. You can send it by email Herefind His archive here And Follow him on X.