SAN FRANCISCO – Facing a 2-1 deficit after dropping Game 3 of their second-round series against the Timberwolves on Saturday night, the Warriors spoke with a tinge of regret as they made sense of what went wrong.
Jimmy Butler, who flashed vintage “Playoff Jimmy” form by scoring 30 points, talked in a low voice as he looked at the box score that read “Minnesota 102, Golden State 97” from the postgame podium.
“Didn’t get the shots we wanted to get, turned the ball over a few times, didn’t contest shots, didn’t take the three out of the game, and that was it,” Butler monotoned.
After being relatively quiet in Games 1 and 2 of this Western Conference semifinal series, he had become the playoff hero the Warriors had been promised when they traded for Butler in February.
He fired up close to 30 shots, taking on the lead ballhandling role as Steph Curry was shackled to the sidelines with a left hamstring strain and doing everything he could to will the Warriors to victory in 43 minutes.
It was not enough.
“Twenty-six shots, 36 shots, next time, it has to be in a win,” Butler remarked.
Disappointment pervaded the Warriors’ locker room, but despair was nowhere to be found.
“There’s no need to panic,” guard Gary Payton II told the Bay Area News Group while nonchalantly tying his shoes at his locker. “We’ll be alright.”
As a team with veteran leaders like Butler and Draymond Green, the players seemed certain they could stay in the series despite Curry’s injury.
“We can compete without Steph,” Butler said. “We’re still as confident as ever.”
Confident or not, the loss still stung.
The Warriors overcame their 0-for-5 shooting from 3-point distance and led 42-40 at halftime in a game where Curry’s lack of shot creation was glaring.
After 36 minutes, the Warriors led 73-69 after Hield and the team’s shooters went 6-for-11 from long range in the third period.
An improbable series lead was there for the taking, and the Warriors knew it.
“We had the game in front of us,” the normally upbeat Hield said somberly.
His mind wandered to a fourth quarter in which the Warriors led 82-77 with eight minutes remaining after Butler made a pair of free throws.
The lead disappeared in a 9-0 Minnesota run that saw Anthony Edwards score five points, including a big dunk that were two of the more emphatic of his game-high 36 points.
Coach Steve Kerr rued his team’s inability to grab loose balls, something that has plagued the Warriors for a month. An offensive rebound by veteran Mike Conley early in the fourth, which resulted in a Naz Reid 3-pointer and kept the deficit to just five, stood out in Kerr’s mind.
“I thought that was the sequence that really shifted the game and the momentum,” Kerr said. “Thirteen offensive boards for them, 26 points that. Was a big factor in the fourth.”
Green fouling out in the fourth quarter did not help the Warriors’ cause. Two of his fouls came from replay reviews and the sixth while contesting a shot at the rim.
It was a difficult development during a trying week for the veteran forward, who was the subject of racial abuse by two spectators in Minneapolis during Game 2.
“The sixth one was a tough one,” Kerr said. “That didn’t feel great looking at the replay, but it is what it is and they outplayed us in the fourth and they deserved to win.”
The fourth-quarter collapse overshadowed what was a career night for 22-year-old forward Jonathan Kuminga, who went from being out of the rotation to scoring 33 points on just 18 shots.
Whether Kuminga was driving for dunks, making tough layups or burying 3-pointers, the Wolves had no answer for the fourth-year forward who said his ankle is starting to feel healthy. The injury caused Kuminga to miss 31 games in the middle of the season.
Kuminga credited Butler for helping him thrive, even though Butler’s presence was a big reason Kuminga’s role was reduced.
“It’s kind of actually easy,” Kuminga said. “It’s just the same way as Steph … you’ve got another player with Jimmy, and they are two different people, but they attract so much attention, you’ve just got to be alert when they’ve got the ball.”
Kuminga and Hield were the only players who looked like they knew how to play with Butler on offense during Saturday’s game. The other five Warriors who played combined for just 20 points on 26 shots.
The Warriors will need another big game from Kuminga — and a bounce-back game from 1-for-10 shooting Brandin Podziemski — to even the series. They have a day of rest to figure out what else needs to go right.
Facing a possible 3-1 series deficit will not factor into that preparation.
“I’m not going to tell my guys to be desperate or any more urgent than anything,” Butler said. “You go out there and you play basketball and you hoop.”
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