Minnesota Timberwolves at Golden State Warriors – Game 4
Date: May 10th, 2025
Time: 9:00 PM CDT
Location: Chase Center
Television Coverage: ESPN
Radio Coverage: KFAN FM\/Wolves App\/iHeart Radio<\/p>\n
Game 4. The dagger opportunity. The punch that leaves the 10-count unnecessary. And for the Minnesota Timberwolves, maybe the most important 48 minutes of basketball since… well, last May.<\/p>\n
Let\u2019s set the stage here.<\/p>\n
Julius Randle\u2014yes, that Julius Randle\u2014put up a vintage performance. A triple-double. A playoff triple-double. And not a fake Westbrook triple-double where you\u2019re just stat-chasing rebounds in a 17-point loss. This was an \u201cI\u2019m keeping us alive while the rest of the offense forgets how to dribble\u201d kind of performance. Meanwhile, Anthony Edwards, who had been playing like his ankle was on loan from a 70-year-old insurance salesman, finally turned the jets on and gave us two thunderous dunks that may or may not have broken the internet in the Twin Cities.<\/p>\n
Now? Now it\u2019s real.<\/p>\n
The Wolves are up 2-1, and Game 4 is the real fork-in-the-road moment. Either they step on the Warriors\u2019 throat\u2014no Steph, no momentum, no lifeline\u2014or they let them up off the mat and head back to Minneapolis with the series hanging in the balance. And if you\u2019ve followed the Wolves at any point in the last 20 years, you know how dangerous that sentence feels.<\/p>\n
This is their moment. The kind of moment franchises build legacies on. The kind of game where you either become the team everyone\u2019s scared to play… or just another fun playoff story with a eventual expiration date.<\/p>\n
Here are the keys to Game 4\u2026<\/p>\n
1. Julius Needs to Keep Being Julius<\/p>\n
Let\u2019s start with the obvious: Julius Randle is playing the best playoff basketball of his career. Say it out loud. Write it in cursive. Stamp it on a commemorative cup. The guy was a one-man wrecking crew in Game 3, finishing with a triple-double and looking like a left-handed Scottie Pippen crossed with a bulldozer.<\/p>\n
And this isn\u2019t flukey stat-padding \u2014 it\u2019s in rhythm, it\u2019s functional, and it\u2019s critical. With Ant still clearly not 100% on that ankle, the Wolves have needed a second star to keep the offense humming. Julius has answered that call in a big way. The best part? He\u2019s not forcing anything. When he bulldozes Jimmy Butler into the post, it\u2019s clean. When he finds Naz in the corner for three, it\u2019s timely. And when he grabs the rebound, brings it up, and initiates offense? That\u2019s bonus-level stuff.<\/p>\n
The Wolves need him to keep being that dude in Game 4.<\/p>\n
2. Ant Needs to Stay Aggressive, Even If He\u2019s Not 100%<\/p>\n
This isn\u2019t a revelation, but it bears repeating: this Wolves team goes as Ant goes. And we saw it again in the second half of Game 3. One moment he was cautiously probing like a guy walking barefoot across Legos, and the next he was exploding to the rim for two monstrous dunks that felt like Marvel trailers \u2014 pure anticipation, raw payoff.<\/p>\n
Even on one leg, Ant can bend a defense. The Warriors are blitzing him and crowding his space, but when he turns the corner, Golden State has no rim protector who can hang with him. His gravity alone creates better looks for guys like Jaden and Naz. He doesn\u2019t need 35 points. He needs to keep the pressure up, make smart decisions, and keep them honest.<\/p>\n
And if the jumper finally returns? Game over.<\/p>\n
3. Rudy Has to Stay Disciplined<\/p>\n
Rudy Gobert has been rock-solid this series, patrolling the paint and altering countless Golden State drives to the rim. If Steve Kerr is smart, the Warriors are going to drive at him to try to bait whistles. They\u2019ll flop. They\u2019ll throw bodies. And yes, Draymond is still doing that thing where he fouls twice every possession but only gets whistled once a quarter.<\/p>\n
Rudy has to stay calm. Stay vertical. Stay on the floor. Because when Rudy\u2019s out there, the rim is closed for business. When he\u2019s not? The Warriors start smelling blood and their confidence returns.<\/p>\n
4. Keep McDaniels Glued to Butler and\/or Hield<\/p>\n
I\u2019ve said it before, but it\u2019s worth a reminder: Jaden McDaniels is a top-3 perimeter defender in the league. He\u2019s been suffocating Jimmy Butler this series, and he\u2019s made Buddy Hield look like just a guy. When McDaniels is locked in, he turns elite scorers into spot-up spectators.<\/p>\n
With no Curry, the Warriors\u2019 offensive margin for error is razor-thin. Take away Hield and Butler, and suddenly the Warriors are relying on Jonathan Kuminga and Kevon Looney to generate offense. That\u2019s where you want them.<\/p>\n
5. The Bench Has to Step Up<\/p>\n
One of the biggest advantages the Wolves have in this series? Depth. However, Minnesota\u2019s bench has been spotty at best through the first three games.<\/p>\n
Naz Reid has come through from beyond the arc, but has been cooked by Jimmy Butler on more than a few occasions. Donte DiVincenzo needs to regain his shooting form and knock down more threes. Nickeil Alexander-Walker had a solid Game 2 with 20 points, but disappeared again on Saturday night.<\/p>\n
In Game 4, that group has to show up. If the bench outplays Golden State\u2019s? That is likely the game.<\/p>\n
The Bottom Line<\/p>\n
This is the moment. The Wolves are up 2\u20131, and the Warriors are wobbling. Steph Curry\u2019s status is still in question. The Target Center crowd is 1,700 miles away. You don\u2019t let this opportunity slip.<\/p>\n
Because we\u2019ve seen this movie before. Golden State is a zombie team. They\u2019ll look dead for 44 minutes, then you blink and they\u2019ve hit five threes in a row and Buddy Hield is flexing like he\u2019s Reggie Miller in MSG. You do not give them a second life.<\/p>\n
If the Wolves come into Game 4 with focus, poise, and that same killer mentality they showed in the fourth quarter of Game 3, they can end this series before Steph ever gets another shot at it.<\/p>\n
Go up 3\u20131. Come home. Close it out.<\/p>\n
And then \u2014 maybe \u2014 start printing tickets for a second straight Western Conference Finals.<\/p>\n
Let\u2019s see if they\u2019re ready for the moment.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Minnesota Timberwolves at Golden State Warriors – Game 4Date: May 10th, 2025Time: 9:00 PM CDTLocation: Chase CenterTelevision Coverage:…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":26937,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3786],"tags":[2269,7,1076,28,142,479,164,4025,4024,1077,6,11,34,1366,308,1369,255],"class_list":{"0":"post-26936","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-golden-state-warriors","8":"tag-at","9":"tag-basketball","10":"tag-canis","11":"tag-front-page","12":"tag-game","13":"tag-golden-state","14":"tag-golden-state-warriors","15":"tag-goldenstate","16":"tag-goldenstatewarriors","17":"tag-hoopus","18":"tag-nba","19":"tag-nba-playoffs","20":"tag-playoffs","21":"tag-preview","22":"tag-timberwolves","23":"tag-timberwolves-game-previews","24":"tag-warriors"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nba\/114493933735315714","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26936","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=26936"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26936\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/26937"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=26936"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=26936"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=26936"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}