On Thursday night the Minnesota Timberwolves have the daunting task of trying to beat not only an undefeated team, but also last year’s NBA champions.
The Golden State Warriors are fresh off of a dominant 100-84 victory over the Memphis Grizzlies on Wednesday night. The win last night came just nine days after handing Memphis their worst loss in franchise history, 119-69. Although the Grizzlies are underperforming this year tallying a 3-6 record, beating a team who made it to the Western Conference Semifinals last year with such conviction speaks volumes about this Golden State team.
“It’s always great to play a team like this, you know they’re nine-in-a-row now, so it should be a great game,” Andrew Wiggins said. “They won the championship last year, this year they have the best record in the league, so it will be a good test for us.”
One thing the Wolves have been doing well this season is playing solid defense. After giving up an average of 106.5 points per game last season, and ranking dead last in the league, Minnesota has done a nice job buckling down on defense to start out the season.
“We play hard. We practice hard. It’s almost like putting a bunch of puppies in a box and shaking it up and watching the puppies go at it a little bit,” Kevin Garnett said. “But it’s fun, you like to see growth and you are starting to see it. And more importantly we want to see if what you do in practice carries over into games. We just have to be consistent. That’s the thing I’ve been telling our guys is let’s be consistent in what we’re doing. We got to play better at home, we have to defend home and establish something here. But you know, it takes time to do all the things, so we’re just trying to hit all points as we go.”
Last year the Warriors relied on outside shooting to win the title, a strategy that many experts did not think would work. Golden State shot a league-leading 39.8 percent from deep while taking 27 attempts a game. Unfortunately for the rest of the league, the Warriors haven’t let up at all. The 2015 NBA Champions are shooting 29 times a game from beyond the arc and making the exact same percentage as the previous season.
From an offensive standpoint, the Wolves and Warriors are opposites. Golden State averages 29 three-point attempts a game, second in the league, compared to Minnesota’s 15.1, the lowest in the league. The Wolves are averaging 100.9 points per matchup compared to the 113.2 that the Warriors have been putting up. One interesting statistic that seems to explain how Golden State has such a high 3-point efficiency rate is the team’s assist numbers. The defending champions are averaging 28.8 assists a game, two more than any other team and six more than the Wolves. The Warriors led the league with 27.4 last year.
One of the main reasons for the Warriors success over the past two seasons has been the reigning NBA Most Valuable Player last season, Stephen Curry.
“I was telling Tay (Tayshaun Prince) today, Michael Jordan was a whole other thing, this guy’s his own thing,” Garnett said of Curry. “It’s beautiful for basketball and for the sport.”
Curry is averaging 31.9 points, five rebounds, six assists and three steals in nine games. The Davidson College guard is shooting over 52 percent from the field and 45 percent from deep. In order to give yourself a shot at beating the undefeated Warriors, you need stop their leader. But how exactly do you do that?
“It’s hard. It’s hard to tell,” Ricky Rubio said. “Seems like he was hot for a long time and it seems like he’s never going to get cold. He gets a lot of threes, he has a lot of talent putting the ball in the basket, so we just have to try to make it tough every time he catches the ball and try to defend him as a team.”
Curry already set the record last season for most 3-point field goals made with 286. With 44 already netted this season, Curry is on pace to smash his old record with an unbelievable 401 made shots from beyond the arc.
Minnesota is confident coming into tonight’s game, however, after having success as the underdog so far this season.
“I think the key has been our defense,” Rubio said. “Sometimes in our offense we are not having a good night or even getting into a close game at the end, the defense is what game us a couple of games down the stretch. It’s something that with veterans like KG and Tayshaun trying to teach us how to do it, and that’s the way.”
