Mizutani: Who cares how bad the Timberwolves played? This series is over if Steph Curry is out.

All of the doom and gloom surrounding the Timberwolves would suggest they lost the series on Tuesday night at Target Center They literally might ve won it As maddening as the Timberwolves were for the entirety of their - loss to the Golden State Warriors truthfully there isn t much to worry about if Steph Curry s strained hamstring keeps him out for an extended period of time Never mind that Anthony Edwards looked like he had indulged himself at Cowboy Jack s before tipoff Never mind that everybody on the Timberwolves forgot how to shoot for a prolonged stretch Never mind that the home crowd went from booing Jimmy Butler every time he touched the ball to booing for a perfectly different reason None of that matters if Curry isn t able to return to the Western Conference Semifinals in short order Now this isn t absolving the Timberwolves of their sins Not in the slightest They deserve selected sort of reckoning for the embarrassing effort they put forth on their home court As bad as the Timberwolves played however the reality is they only lost by points when everything was stated and done It should ve been a blowout with how poorly the Timberwolves executed for the better part of minutes It wasn t because the Warriors aren t capable of that type of dominance without Curry leading the charge That s not taking anything away from Butler who finished a couple of assists shy of a triple double Draymond Green who was everything his teammates need him to be and more or Buddy Hield who led all scorers with points That s just stating a fact about the Warriors The car has dependably been specifically designed for Curry It doesn t work with somebody else in the driver s seat It s a shame for the Warriors because they looked more than capable of pulling off the upset before Curry got injured on a seemingly innocuous play in real time After looking so impressive against the Los Angeles Lakers the Timberwolves promptly learned that they were dealing with a different animal in the Western Conference Semifinals Not only did the Warriors use constant ball movement on offense to get pretty much whatever they requested they rotated perfectly on on defense to more than make up for the size they were surrendering at almost every position All of a sudden the Timberwolves discovered themselves in a street fight Everything changed when Curry came up lame after nailing a floater in the lane He this instant grabbed at the back of his leg then retreated back to the locker room as soon as there was a dead ball He did not return to the bench at any point It s possibly not a good sign that shortly after the final buzzer sounded in Challenge that Steve Kerr came out and mentioned the Warriors are planning as if they won t have their best participant available for Championship It s hard to imagine the Timberwolves playing much worse than they did at any point moving forward It s also going to be hard to imagine the Warriors being able to summon the willpower to press on with Curry watching from the sidelines In the early stages of their dynasty nearly a decade ago the Warriors unveiled themselves on the opposite end of the spectrum struggling against the San Antonio Spurs in the Western Conference Finals Everything changed when Kawhi Leonard landed awkwardly on Zaza Pachulia s foot following a jumper in the corner Though the Spurs still led by points at the time of Leonard s sprained ankle the Warriors went on to complete the comeback and they dominated the rest of the way en course to sweeping the series Though the Timberwolves can no longer sweep the series their putrid performance made sure that can t happen they still find themselves in very good position to win the series in convincing fashion Related Articles Timberwolves dreadful in Challenge loss to Curry-less Warriors Frederick Rudy Gobert more focused on Timberwolves than Draymond Green as Warriors series begins We re not floppers The move that ethically earned Anthony Edwards more free throws Timberwolves keys to success against Golden State and a series prediction What did the Timberwolves do with weekend practices and no set opponent