HOUSTON – Stephen Curry’s game-high tally of 38 points was not enough for the Golden State Warriors, as they lost 116-110 at home to the Minnesota Timberwolves on Sunday for a third consecutive National Basketball Association (NBA) defeat.
Despite slipping to 6-5 after earlier losses to the Cleveland Cavaliers and Denver Nuggets, Warriors coach Steve Kerr insisted that he was not “overly concerned”.
“The season is filled with ups and downs and we’re in a little bit of a spell right now,” he said. “But it’s not like we were the world’s greatest team when we were 6-2 and we’re not the world’s worst team losing the last three.
“This is part of the season and I think we just played, back to back, two great defensive teams that throttled us and we need to figure out some things offensively and I’m confident that we will.”
Minnesota’s Anthony Edwards scored eight of his team-high 33 points in the final 2min 28sec at the Chase Centre, while four Timberwolves starters scored in double figures, including Karl-Anthony Towns, who finished with 21 points. Towns also grabbed a game-high 14 rebounds. Rudy Gobert added his own double-double of 10 points and 10 rebounds, and Jaden McDaniels added 13 points on 6-of-8 shooting from the floor.
In contrast, Golden State’s second-leading scorer was Klay Thompson with 16 points, while fellow starters Draymond Green, Andrew Wiggins and Kevon Looney finished with just nine, six and two points, respectively.
The Warriors got their supplementary offence from Dario Saric, who had 11 points and a team-high 10 rebounds off the bench, and Jonathan Kuminga, who scored 10 points.
After a surge midway through the second quarter, the Timberwolves nearly held the lead for the rest of the contest. The advantage grew to as many as 16 points late in the third quarter and with 7:41 left in the fourth, but Golden State cut the gap to as little as four in the closing minute.
Kerr then sent on Brandin Podziemski, who scored eight points, but the late outburst was not enough for the Warriors to rally.
It was the sixth straight win for Minnesota, which continues a five-game road swing with another meeting against Golden State on Tuesday.
Meanwhile, a resurgent Houston Rockets also powered to a sixth straight NBA victory, withstanding a 36-point triple-double from Denver’s Nikola Jokic in a 107-104 win over the Nuggets.
Fred VanVleet scored 26 points and Turkish centre Alperen Sengun added 23 for the Rockets, who improved to 6-3 after amassing just 22 victories last season.
Jokic’s fourth triple-double of the season included 21 rebounds and 11 assists and Denver led 76-74 going into the final period, which featured three lead changes.
Jokic drained a three-pointer with 19.5 seconds left to cut the Rockets’ lead to 103-102, but VanVleet made a pair of free throws and Jae’Sean Tate came up with a steal as Denver attempted to inbound the ball and Houston held on.
Over in Los Angeles, the Lakers defeated the visiting Portland Trail Blazers 116-110 despite the absence of LeBron James, who sat out for the first time this season with a left calf bruise.
Anthony Davis scored 30 points with 13 rebounds, Rui Hachimura added 19 points and Cam Reddish and Austin Reaves each added 18 points, as the Lakers delivered back-to-back wins with an adjusted starting line-up after just three victories in the first eight games. REUTERS
