NBA scores 2015: Timberwolves show fight against Warriors & 3 other things we learned

Down 21, Minnesota fought back within five points before ultimately losing, showing something in the process.

by Tim Cato

Nov 13, 2015, 2:00 PM UTC

Brad Rempel-USA TODAY Sports

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Down 97-76 with two minutes left in the third quarter is when most teams let go against the Golden State Warriors. That's how the usual script goes, at least. Maybe the Minnesota Timberwolves are too young to know any better. On Wednesday, they didn't give in.

They still lost, falling 129-116 on Thursday as Golden State improved to 10-0. It's hard as hell to beat the Warriors and Minnesota, missing Ricky Rubio, wasn't going to be the team to do it -- especially not when Stephen Curry rattled off an effortless 46-point evening. But against the NBA's reigning hegemon, sizing up a 21-point deficit and cutting it to only five points is about as impressive an effort as you can ask for.

Minnesota is one of the surprising success stories of the young season thus far. The loss drops them to 4-4 now, with back-to-back standout victories over Chicago in overtime and Atlanta. Karl-Anthony Towns has impacted games nightly with an incredible interior presence and Andrew Wiggins continues to grow after a slow start. His back-to-back 30-point performances (33 and 31 points, respectively) in the two key wins mentioned above were vital to the Timberwolves staying alive. Although Ricky Rubio has missed the first two games, he's also off to a strong start.

While the Wolves are still seen a year away from contending from a playoff spot at least, it's great to see them scrapping and fighting against a team that's clearly the NBA's best. The eclectic mix of super young and extremely old (Kevin Garnett and Tayshaun Prince) is eye-popping at times, but it's fantastic for Minnesota, giving their youngsters tangible role models that extend beyond 48 minutes each night.

So many other teams have called it quits when faced with a lead like that against the Warriors. Instead, Minnesota raced to an 18-2 run, taking advantage of Luke Walton's unfazed rotations that rested Curry until the middle of the fourth. Another veteran is the 32-year-old Kevin Martin and he's making his impact felt, scoring 15 points and dishing out six assists as the Timberwolves tried to replace Rubio's absence with a team effort.

Minnesota will hit some rough patches. They’re relying too much on players still learning for struggles to not pop up here and there. Plus, they’ve still got the emotional Flip Saunders story hanging above their head in a brutal Western Conference. This isn’t the Timberwolves time, not yet.

But runs like that one and showing fight against the Warriors is exactly the type of moments that teach the young Wolves in ways that can never be relayed simply on the practice court. And the day where the Timberwolves become a real rival for Golden State may be closer than we think.

3 things we learned

Stephen Curry is a death machine. Like, OK, we get it now. Curry scored 46 points and nailed eight triples on 15-of-25 shooting, kicking it off with a 21-point first quarter that gave him four of the six 20-point quarters in the NBA this year. He was an assassin against the Timberwolves, refusing to show mercy at any point.

First, Minnesota just played Curry straight up, with Zach LaVine and Andre Miller matching him one-on-one. That didn't work. Then they tried double teaming him and that didn't work, either. The Warriors are just too good at quickly exploiting a 4-on-3, as you see here.

Hasn't anyone learned that trapping Steph just lets Draymond Green do stuff like this with impunity? pic.twitter.com/0t81PKRxma
— Dieter Kurtenbach (@dkurtenbach) November 13, 2015

And sometimes Curry didn’t even need to pass to beat a double.

In the second half, Minnesota actually slowed Curry down on a few possessions by aggressively switching Karl-Anthony Towns onto Curry during pick-and-rolls. Others proposed that the Timberwolves would have been better off putting Andrew Wiggins on Curry right from the jump, size disadvantages on the wing be damned. Curry likely burns Minnesota no matter what they do, but maybe they prevent him from a gaudy 46-point performance. And maybe not! After all ...

Stephen Curry in his post-game interview: "We're 10-0 and we feel like we can get better."
— SB Nation NBA (@SBNationNBA) November 13, 2015

Derrick Favors is one of the NBA's most underrated big men. Did you know Favors averaged 16 points and eight rebounds last year? That he's following it up so far this year with 15 points and nine boards? With Rudy Gobert out injured on Thursday, Favors dominated, scoring 25 on 10-of-18 shooting with 12 boards and a career-high seven blocks. Even better, Favors has become a dangerous defender and one of the biggest reasons for Utah's 92-91 loss was the times that Favors spent off the court.

Big story tonight: without Derrick Favors in the game, the Jazz's defense cratered. In those minutes, they let the Heat shoot 83%.
— Andy Larsen (@andyblarsen) November 13, 2015

Phoenix's guards take over. Eric Bledsoe and Brandon Knight combined for 63 points on 23-of-35 shooting with 13 assists between them, showing the lethality of a fully functioning Suns backcourt. More importantly, Phoenix knocked off the Clippers, who wrap up a terrible back-to-back where they couldn't win in Dallas for DeAndre Jordan, lost J.J. Redick to injury and fell to 5-4 on the year. Tough times in Los Angeles, for sure.