Timberwolves Reclaim Homecourt Advantage With 102-97 Win Versus Warriors
Anthony Edwards scored a game-high 36 points--including 28 in the second half, 13 of which came in the fourth quarter--as the Minnesota Timberwolves reclaimed homecourt advantage with a 102-97 game three win versus the Golden State Warriors. Julius Randle contributed a triple double (24 points, game-high 12 assists, 10 rebounds), and Jaden McDaniels added 15 points while playing his usual tough defense. The Warriors led for most of the second half and were ahead 82-77 with 8:16 remaining in the fourth quarter before the Timberwolves went on a 16-4 run to take control. The Timberwolves outscored the Warriors 33-24 in the fourth quarter.
The biggest story of this series so far is the strained left hamstring suffered by two-time regular season MVP and 2022 Finals MVP Stephen Curry, who played just 13 minutes in Golden State's 99-88 game one win before being sidelined. Sans the injured Curry, the Warriors lost game two 117-93 but returned home owning homecourt advantage. Jimmy Butler did his part in game three, scoring a team-high 33 points, grabbing seven rebounds, and dishing for a team-high seven assists. Jonathan Kuminga, who fell out of the rotation earlier this season, scored 30 points off of the bench. Buddy Hield had a solid game with 14 points, five assists, and four rebounds. If the Warriors had received anything of substance from Draymond Green, a player touted as a future Hall of Famer, they could have won the game--but "Mr. Triple Single" finished with two points, four assists, and two rebounds on 1-4 field goal shooting while committing a game-high five turnovers before fouling out. He had more turnovers and fouls (11) than points, rebounds, assists, steals, and blocked shots (10) combined. Having more turnovers than field goals made is a "Harden," so perhaps having more turnovers and fouls than points, rebounds, assists, steals, and blocked shots combined should be called a "Green." It should be emphasized that his primary matchup, Randle, ate his lunch (and breakfast and dinner).
Green is a four-time NBA champion whose career should not be defined by one game, but the larger point is that there is a consistent pattern during his career that when he is not surrounded by multiple All-Stars--if not multiple Hall of Famers--then his numbers and his impact are muted. Is it too much to ask that in a pivotal playoff game Green figures out how to get five of something positive? If not five points, then five rebounds or five assists? Is it too much to ask that after getting in foul trouble Green avoids making high risk, low reward plays that result in him fouling out? One could cynically comment that the Warriors' best chance to win was to take him out so he took those fouls for the team, but even though he had a -5 plus/minus number the Warriors probably missed his defense and physicality down the stretch.
After game two--during which Green received his fifth technical foul of the 2025 playoffs--Green ranted that he is the victim of a false narrative depicting him as an "Angry Black man." One of the characteristics of people who have anger management issues is to deny that they have a problem and instead blame others, and this is a recurring two-pronged pattern of behavior for Green: the first prong is him lashing out inappropriately, and the second prong is his stubborn refusal to take responsibility for his actions. Green's basketball playing ability has enabled him to obtain generational wealth, a host of accolades, and almost certain induction in the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame; it takes a very peculiar, warped thought process for a person who has been so blessed to conclude that he is a victim who is being singled out for negative treatment. If Green lacked basketball playing ability and behaved in a similar fashion while holding a regular job then he would not only be fired but would likely be in jail and would almost certainly would be found liable in a civil action; he not only punched teammate/co-worker Jordan Poole in the face, but he has assaulted several opponents over the years, and he has been let off the hook with minor game suspensions plus fines that are negligible compared to his huge salary. Green is not only not a victim, but he is the beneficiary of privileges granted to a very select few athletes whose teams and leagues consider them to be valuable commodities.
The Warriors would be much better served if Green focused on performing at a high level in game four and for the rest of the playoffs instead of pouting off of the court as a prelude to disappearing on the court.
Labels: Anthony Edwards, Draymond Green, Golden State Warriors, Jimmy Butler, Julius Randle, Minnesota Timberwolves, Stephen Curry
posted by David Friedman @ 1:17 AM
2 Comments:
Look, Draymond is really frustrating to have on your team, trust me, and in some ways nobody hates him more than Warrior fans... but we generally give him a pass in the Scott Foster games. Dude hates Draymond almost as much as he hated CP3. It was not super fun seeing him when we had them both on the team at the same time, believe me.
I normally don't like whining about the refs, but Foster's well-known for, um, fostering grudges with players and teams, and besides that he was implicated heavily in the Donaghy scandal. If there's one ref we should be allowed to whine a little about, that's gotta be the one.
Not that we never win when he refs our playoff games or anything so dramatic, but it does feel like we never win the close ones. Even the national TV announcers were flabbergasted that challenge went against Draymond in the third, and they're pretty much never on his side for obvious reasons (I mean he is usually in the wrong). His fifth and six fouls were pretty ticky tack too and were not being called on anybody else on either team.
We were up 5 with about seven minutes left, and then 8 of the last 10 fouls, including the last two against Draymond that fouled him out, went against us. That despite us attacking the rim way more that they did and them shooting way more jumpers than we did, and despite us having had the advantage in fouls and free throws the rest of the night for that reason. It was a pretty weird swing.
Wolves missed four layups in the fourth, got a whistle on three of them. We missed eight, also got a whistle on three of them. Lotta contact on most of those other five, though. Three we didn't get the call on were blocks with at least as much contact as Dray's sixth foul.
Look, if Draymond gets into foul trouble in Game 4 we'll be just as pissed at him as anyone. There's forty other Draymond games you could have written this piece about and we'd nod along and say fair enough. Probably more. He was an ASS in the Houston series and nearly got us eliminated and it's arguably more his fault than Lebron's we didn't win in 2016. But when it's Foster behind the whistle I'm not sure if there's really much he can do about it. He was pretty much on his best behavior tonight, temper-wise, and at least half of his fouls were borderline calls that usually would go in the home team's favor.
Not making an excuse as such or a woe is us, and it won't change the outcome of the series unless it was the difference between lasting long enough for Steph to come back or not, and it probably wasn't. If we're good enough to beat them we probably still will, and if we're not then it didn't matter and we might have lost anyway. Maybe I'll feel differently if things go seven but at this point it's been almost fifteen years of these being predictable schedule losses and we're pretty used to it by now....even if it also still frustrates us enough to stay up late doom-scrolling game recaps ðŸ˜
PS: I dunno we need to be on him about the Angry Black Man comments, though, given he was asked about it right after some jackasses were calling him slurs. Like if there's one time in his career Dray was in the right to be agitated, that was probably the time.
Anonymous:
It is telling that your diatribe does not mention Green's lack of production, and instead focuses on an unproven (and unprovable) narrative about officiating.
I am not going to relitigate the Donaghy affair, nor will I speculate about Foster's past. Donaghy went to jail and is out of the NBA, and Foster remains one of the NBA's highest graded officials every year.
Green and Paul are similar in that they are dirty players who constantly complain to the officials. Considering how they play and how they act, neither they nor their fans are in any position to cry.
I am not going to analyze individual foul calls from this game, but it is worth emphasizing that GSW was whistled for 24 fouls (including one "take" foul in the last minute when they were trying to come back) while Minnesota was whistled for 23 fouls. Both teams shot 17-21 from the free throw line. The narrative that Green is a victim is demonstrably absurd, and the notion that officiating decided the outcome of this game is equally absurd.
A fan was ejected for saying something offensive to Green, and I am fine with such fans being banned as well. Green was not referencing fans in his postgame commentary; he was suggesting that media members are falsely portraying him--and I would argue that there are at least as many media stories about what a great guy he is off of the court (which has nothing to do with his lack of emotional control at work) and about how much he has worked on his emotional control (which is debatable, to say the least, based on observing his behavior).
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