SAN FRANCISCO \u2013 With an injured Steph Curry watching from the sidelines, the Warriors now are one loss away from their season coming to a close after a 117-110 loss to the Minnesota Timberwolves in Game 4 of the Western Conference semifinals on Monday night at Chase Center.<\/p>\n
The Warriors now are in a three-games-to-one series deficit, and have lost three straight playoff games for the second time under Steve Kerr, and the first since blowing a 3-1 series lead in the 2016 NBA Finals<\/p>\n
The score didn’t tell the real story, especially with how bad the third quarter was for the Warriors, who had a two-point lead at halftime, and then trailed by 20 points at the end of the third quarter.<\/p>\n
Timberwolves stars Anthony Edwards (30 points) and Julius Randle (31 points) were too much to handle. The duo combined to score 61 points on 22-of-42 shooting and were 10 of 19 on 3-pointers. Pure dominance.\u00a0<\/p>\n
It was unfair to expect Jimmy Butler and Jonathan Kuminga to repeat their performances from Game 3 when they combined to score 63 points, which amounted to 65 percent of the Warriors\u2019 overall points. Kuminga scored a team-high 23 points on 6-of-13 shooting in Game 4, but Butler only had 14 points and was a game-worst minus-30.\u00a0<\/p>\n
The two didn\u2019t receive much help from their teammates elsewhere.<\/p>\n
Here are three takeaways from the Warriors\u2019 Game 4<\/p>\n
Butler Goes Quiet<\/p>\n
The 33 points Butler scored in Game 3 were his most in a playoff game since dropping 35 on the Boston Celtics to open the 2023 Eastern Conference Finals. He played 43 minutes, and Butler looked gassed down the stretch. The Warriors\u2019 offense crumbled, and Butler was just 1 of 7 in the fourth quarter.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Jaden McDaniels made sure Butler didn\u2019t get comfortable early, and the Warriors\u2019 star never got going. Butler took one shot in the first quarter and had one point. At halftime, he had seven points on five shots. Yet the Warriors still led by two points, 60-58.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Then the third quarter happened. Butler couldn\u2019t find any extra juice, and McDaniels only made his life worse. The long and rangy but still twitchy all-world defender stuck to Butler\u2019s every move. He manipulated screens and made the game as difficult as possible for Butler.\u00a0<\/p>\n
As the Warriors were outscored 39-17 in the third quarter, Butler played all but eight seconds. Somehow, he was their leading scorer for the quarter with eight points. It was that bad.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Butler only took nine shots all game, 17 fewer than Game 3.<\/p>\n
Can\u2019t Stop Kuminga<\/p>\n
Even with several top defenders, the Timberwolves don\u2019t have an answer for Kuminga. He isn\u2019t aimlessly putting his head down and attacking the basket. Kuminga is assessing, and in a blink, he finds another gear that the Timberwolves can\u2019t match.<\/p>\n
Kuminga shook the Timberwolves’ defense in each of his two first-half stints. Through 13 minutes, Kuminga already was up to 16 points off the bench on 4-of-6 shooting and made all eight of his free throws. The only player on his level going into halftime was Julius Randle, who already had 19 points and five rebounds for the Timberwolves.<\/p>\n
His eight free throws in the first half were Kuminga\u2019s most for an entire game since Dec. 30, 2024, when he made 10.<\/p>\n
Kuminga got to 20 points entering the fourth quarter, but the Warriors were trailing by 20 points. The 11 free throws he made, missing just once, tied a career high.<\/p>\n
Trouble From Downtown<\/p>\n
The 3-point line always looks a little different when Curry isn\u2019t on the court. Once again, it became a major problem for the Warriors.\u00a0<\/p>\n
A game after going 0 of 5 in the first half but finishing 10 of 23 on threes, the Warriors looked like the three-ball could be a strength. Draymond Green made his first two attempts, and the Warriors in these playoffs were 3-1 when he made multiple threes. They\u2019re now 3-2, as Green missed his final four threes.<\/p>\n
Buddy Hield, who scored just 13 points in 35 minutes, was the only other Warrior to make multiple threes. He was 2 of 6 from 3-point range and 4-of-11 shooting overall.<\/p>\n
Brandin Podziemski took four threes and missed all four. He\u2019s now 3 of 17 on threes this series. Butler missed his lone attempt, and Kuminga missed both of his two tries. At least Moses Moody and Quinten Post, two players now out of the rotation, made threes in garbage time.<\/p>\n
The Warriors as a team were outscored by 24 points behind the 3-point line. The Timberwolves had four players make multiple threes and went 16 of 34 (47.1 percent), a stark contrast to the Warriors\u2019 8 of 27 (29.6 percent). While the Warriors couldn\u2019t make shots, they often didn\u2019t seem to want to take shots either.<\/p>\n