SAN FRANCISCO — The Minnesota Timberwolves know they are a better team than this Steph Curry-less version of the Golden State Warriors.
They know that whether Jimmy Butler has a great game or a bad one, they should still beat the Warriors. They know that no matter how good Draymond Green has been as a defender in the past, no matter how many Defensive Player of the Year awards he thinks he should have won during his career, he hasn’t shown that he has any answer for Julius Randle in this series. They know that when Anthony Edwards finds his groove, there is nothing even the legitimately stingy Warriors defense can do to stop him.
That knowledge, that assurance that they are deeper, more talented and tougher than these Curry-less Warriors, may be the only thing standing in their way of a second straight appearance in the Western Conference finals.
The Wolves are one victory away after a 117-110 road win Monday night. They lost three of the four quarters in the game, were out-hustled and out-smarted for the entirety of the first half, and it did not really matter. A 39-17 destruction in the third quarter was all they really needed to catapult them to a 3-1 lead in the series.
To close out Golden State, the Timberwolves are going to have to battle Butler, Green, Steve Kerr and their own hubris at Target Center in Game 5 on Wednesday night. It was enough of an issue in Game 4 that coach Chris Finch felt compelled to point it out at halftime, with his team trailing by two.
After watching his team get out-rebounded 25-15 by the smaller Warriors in the first half and surrender 60 points to a team that has looked neutered offensively since Curry’s hamstring injury in the second quarter of Game 1, Finch had the sinking feeling that complacency was setting in. The Wolves were slow to move their feet on defense, struggled once again on offense when the Warriors went zone and largely looked like a team that wasn’t the least bit worried about its opponent.
“I thought we were just kind of doing 85 percent of the job out there in the first half,” Finch said.
The Wolves were outscored 10-2 in second-chance points and 26-16 on points in the paint in the first half. Edwards missed four of his first five shots and was a pedestrian 5 of 12 for 14 points in the first two quarters. Only Randle’s 19 points and three 3s in the first two quarters kept the Timberwolves afloat until Edwards joined the party.
The team gathered at halftime for an extended discussion. Finch told them they were playing like they had already won the series. For this team that is still learning how to handle success, seeing the greatest shooter in the history of the sport in street clothes while Brandin Podziemski, Buddy Hield and Gary Payton II laid brick after brick may have dulled the edge that helped them carve up LeBron and Luka in the first round.
The game turned right before halftime when Edwards splashed a buzzer-beating 3 over Green and Payton to cut the deficit to 62-60.
AT. THE. BUZZER. 🚨 pic.twitter.com/Edbhy22z64
— Minnesota Timberwolves (@Timberwolves) May 13, 2025
He untucked his jersey as he headed to the locker room with a menacing scowl on his face and gave the team a piece of his mind. Edwards and Rudy Gobert were among the most vocal players in the locker room at halftime, with Edwards telling his teammates that no team has ever won a best-of-seven series 2-1.
“I told them we have to get two more wins and right now we playing like we already got four wins,” Edwards said. “We playing like they going to lay down, and knowing this team, knowing their head coach, they are never going to lay down. We had to figure it out, because if we would have kept playing like that, we would have lost tonight.”
The malaise lifted in the third quarter, when Edwards exploded for 16 of his 30 points. He went 6 of 8 from the field and 3 of 5 from 3-point range, and Minnesota got seven points and three assists from Randle to take a 20-point lead.
The Warriors have been throwing all kinds of different defensive looks at Edwards and the Wolves in the series, and the strategy has contributed to some fluctuating performances. He scored 36 in the win in Game 3 but had just 20 on 13 shots in the Wolves’ Game 2 win.
Edwards threw the kitchen sink at the Warriors. His 3s were deep and carried a high degree of difficulty. His rim attacks were overpowering.
Each strike brought a groan from the Chase Center fans, who began the night much louder than they were in Game 3 before ultimately yielding to Edwards’ star power.
“On the road, you can hear the pain from the crowd when he’s making shots like that,” said Nickeil Alexander-Walker, who broke out of a shooting slump with a perfect 5-of-5 night. “He gets on a heater and he starts to do his thing and be the showman that he is.”
Edwards smiled a wide smile when asked if he could hear the reaction from the crowd with each haymaker he landed to the Warriors’ jaw.
“Satisfaction,” he said. “Just the best satisfaction ever.”
Even the noted Wolves hater Green could only tip his cap, calling Edwards “one of one.”
“Every time we’re on a run, we’re letting Ant break the run up,” Green said. “And somebody can break the run up, but it can’t be their best player. Our defense should be keyed at that point during a run that it can’t be their best player just getting to a spot and raising up.”
Aside from a surprising Game 1 victory at Target Center that was as much a result of horrendous shooting by the Timberwolves as it was about Golden State’s pedigree, the Warriors have not shown the ability to keep up. Butler scored 33 points and Jonathan Kuminga had 30 off the bench in Game 3 on Saturday, but the Wolves won anyway. Playoff Jimmy was whisper quiet in Game 4, battling an illness and scoring just 14 points on nine shots after promising to be more aggressive in this game. The Warriors were outscored by 30 points in Butler’s 34 minutes.
Green led a tenacious Warriors defense and hit a bunch of 3s in Game 1, but it’s been mostly downhill since then. He scored 14 points on 6-of-14 shooting, going 0 of 4 from deep after making his first two 3s of the night. The Warriors were 8 of 27 from 3, a conversion rate that would assuredly be much better with Curry out there letting it fly.
Kuminga scored 16 of his 23 points in the first half, a much less impactful showing than his big night in Game 3. He did not grab a single rebound in 29:31, turned it over twice and was a minus-13.
And Podziemski (3 of 14 and 0 of 4 from 3), Hield (13 points on 4-of-11 shooting with four turnovers) and Payton (1 of 5) were no match for Edwards’ supporting cast of Jaden McDaniels (10 points, 13 rebounds), Alexander-Walker (13 points) and co-star Randle (31 points, five rebounds, 4-of-8 from 3).
But just as the blowout seemed to be underway in Game 4, the Wolves exhaled. Not seeing the Warriors as a threat to make a comeback along the lines of what the Bucks did to them in Milwaukee last month, the Wolves figured the game was over. They committed 13 of their 21 turnovers in the fourth, missed all three of their 3s and shot 31 percent.
The Warriors whittled a 21-point deficit down to seven in the closing minutes with a unit of bench guys who have been unplayable for most of the series.
“It felt like we started playing down to the competition,” McDaniels said. “I mean, you can’t do that. They almost came back. If there was more time, they probably could have put their starters back in and made a run. So just finishing the game out like we start.”
This is unfamiliar territory for the Timberwolves franchise. For most of the 35-plus years of existence, the only standard they have had is no standard at all. To see the NBA Draft Lottery being held on Monday without Wolves fans reaching for any good luck charm they could find in hopes of landing a high pick that would bring a franchise savior was a unique experience. The Wolves have their savior already in Edwards, a 23-year-old who already has more playoff wins in his career (19) than the franchise had in its entire existence (18) before he arrived in 2020.
“Ant’s the brightest star in the room, and not just from what he does on the basketball court,” Randle said. “It’s his personality and how he brings everybody together. You know how you can communicate and just light up a room? He has that ‘it’ factor.”
But the Wolves are still getting used to the sustained excellence and focus that a deep playoff run demands. The Warriors are a proud, hard-playing group, but with Curry out they lack the firepower to stay with the Wolves. They have tried to take this series into the mud, using their defense to force low-scoring affairs. So far, it has only really worked in Game 1, a 99-88 Warriors win.
“You give up 117 points without Steph, you’re probably losing,” Green said. “Because the likelihood that we’re going to score 117 without him is not that high.”
Curry is not expected to play in Game 5, but a four-day break before a Game 6 would be played in San Francisco has everyone’s attention. A win on Wednesday would help the Wolves avoid having to fly back to the West Coast, eliminate the concern of seeing Curry on the floor again and give them an extra day or two to rest up while the Oklahoma City Thunder and Denver Nuggets duke it out in the other West semifinal.
Alexander-Walker said the Wolves have to “understand the moment.”
“Have to be present and understand that these are situations that are pivotal,” Alexander-Walker said. “You have a chance to close out on your home court as opposed to having to go elsewhere and try to win and then do it again and come back on the road and travel.”
The fourth win will be the hardest to get, he said. They know how close they are to getting back to the conference finals. They know that the door is wide open for them. Now they just have to check their egos, clear their minds and walk through it.
(Photo of Anthony Edwards: Ezra Shaw / Getty Images)