Stephen Curry and Steve Kerr criticized the Golden State Warriors’ defensive effort after losing 127-120 to the Minnesota Timberwolves in Curry’s Friday return from injury.
Curry posted 39 points, but a Wolves team missing Anthony Edwards out-shot and out-rebounded the Warriors on Friday night at Chase Center.
“I thought our defense let us down tonight,” Kerr said after the game. “We had several plays in transition, in both halves, where we lost sight of Naz Reid and a couple other shooters. I just thought our transition defense was poor… We’ve got to play better defense than that.”
Curry meanwhile said after the loss the Warriors “had some more defensive slip-ups than the offensive side of the ball, especially early in the game.”
Golden State led by five points with 10 and a half minutes left in the game, but were unable to stop Gobert and Donte DiVincenzo from retaking the lead down the stretch.
The Warriors particularly struggled to contain the Wolves’ big men with both Draymond Green (personal reasons) and Al Horford (sciatica) out of the lineup.
Trayce Jackson-Davis and Quinten Post were largely tasked with defending center Rudy Gobert, who finished the night having gone 11-for-13 from the field while contributing 24 points and 14 rebounds.
“You can try to keep a body on him, and try to take him out of the offense at times… 24 and 14, that’s tough to overcome,” Curry said. “You know Draymond and Al understand how to make their impact, make their presence felt against him. But we didn’t have them. We had to figure out a way to get it done, but we just didn’t.”
The loss dropped the Warriors to 13-13 while keeping them in the eighth spot in the Western Conference. Golden State will hope to get one of their missing defenders back before Sunday’s road game against the Portland Trail Blazers as the team looks to climb the standings.