Stephen Curry and the Golden State Warriors advanced to the Western Conference Semifinals with a 103-89 win over the Houston Rockets in Game 7 at the Toyota Center. That triumph sets up an intriguing matchup with Anthony Edwards and the Minnesota Timberwolves, and Curry looked ahead to that series postgame.
“We watched a little bit of their first-round series,” Curry said. “He’s playing with supreme confidence. We know they had their run last year, and they’re a new look with [Julius] Randle, but same Ant, who’s trying to take strides with every opportunity he gets.
“It’s going to be a tough challenge,” Curry continued. “We know you’re gonna have to send multiple bodies at him, and we’ll figure out a game plan to go at him. But yeah, they’re hot right now, they’ve been playing some great basketball the last couple of months. We’re excited that we have an opportunity to have some more basketball to play, too.”
The Timberwolves have indeed impressed these last few months. They entered the playoffs as one of the hottest teams in the NBA, with 17 wins in their last 21 games, and then made a huge statement in the first round against the Los Angeles Lakers.
The Lakers were the favorites coming into the series, but the Timberwolves dispatched them in five games. They just executed better in the fourth quarter, time and time again, and the Warriors will need to be at their best down the stretch in this series.
The key to that will be finding a way to limit Edwards’ impact. The 23-year-old excelled both as a scorer and a playmaker in the big moments against the Lakers.
Edwards finished that Lakers series with averages of 26.8 points, 8.4 rebounds, 6.2 assists, 1.2 steals, and 0.4 blocks per game. To go with his brilliance on offense, the three-time All-Star played some terrific defense and was the best player on the court in that series. If that ends up being the case in the Conference Semifinals as well, then the Warriors would be in trouble.
Edwards averaged 26.0 points, 6.0 rebounds, 5.5 assists, 0.8 steals, and 0.8 blocks per game against the Warriors during the regular season. That doesn’t really give an idea about how well he’d do in this series, though, as all of those games were played before the Warriors acquired Jimmy Butler.
So, this will be Edwards and the Timberwolves’ first crack at this iteration of the team. With that in mind, the Warriors winning the season series 3-1 doesn’t give you much of an idea about how this series will pan out, either.
As for how Curry performed against the Timberwolves, well, they had some trouble dealing with him. The two-time MVP averaged 28.8 points, 2.5 rebounds, 7.5 assists, and 0.8 blocks per game while shooting 45.8% from beyond the arc. He scored at least 30 points in each of the last three meetings and gave the Timberwolves headaches.
This is going to sound rather obvious, but this series might well end up coming down to which defense is able to slow down the opposing superstar. The Timberwolves ranked sixth in defensive rating in the regular season while the Warriors were seventh. Both defenses can make life difficult for the opposition, and the question is which one ends up faring better.
