{"id":561978,"date":"2026-01-26T14:11:26","date_gmt":"2026-01-26T14:11:26","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/561978\/"},"modified":"2026-01-26T14:11:26","modified_gmt":"2026-01-26T14:11:26","slug":"warriors-stay-on-point-exploit-wounded-timberwolves-in-win-nbc-sports-bay-area-california","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/561978\/","title":{"rendered":"Warriors stay on point, exploit wounded Timberwolves in win \u2013 NBC Sports Bay Area & California"},"content":{"rendered":"

From the dog days of a season in peril<\/a> to the arctic chill in the air to the heat burning the streets of Minneapolis, the Warriors on Sunday had plenty of reasons for their collective focus to scatter like the wind.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere’s a lot of heavy hearts and a lot of things especially this Minneapolis community,\u201d Stephen Curry told reporters at Target Center after a 111-85 win over the Minnesota Timberwolves<\/a>. \u201cYesterday was rough. It’s been rough I know out here, and I you can kind of feel it when we got here two days ago. The protests that were going on downtown.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was amazing to watch the turn out and peaceful protests and the unified voice that was here. And you feel like that what kind of turn the tide of you know to a more positive direction.\u201d<\/p>\n

Credit the Warriors for staying on task and taking full advantage of a Minnesota squad that appeared to be reeling from the harsh realities gripping their community<\/a>. This victory was built on defense, the component that most challenges the mind.<\/p>\n

The Warriors limited the Wolves to 38-percent shooting from the field, including 34.2 percent from deep. They committed only 12 turnovers, while forcing 26 and scoring 25 points off the giveaways.<\/p>\n

Most eye-popping is that the Warriors, led by Curry, Brandin Podziemski and Will Richard, snagged a season-high 20 steals \u2013 the highest total of any NBA team this season.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe were active and sharp with our rotations and game plan stuff,\u201d coach Steve Kerr told reporters in Minneapolis. \u201cWe didn\u2019t make many mistakes and took advantage of the opportunities that were there. A lot of guys diving on the floor for loose balls, and Steph set the tone early, he dove on one and Moses [Moody] got the three in the corner that gave us some momentum. And BP got on the floor, called a timeout. Those are big plays, and they establish a level of fight that you have to have.\u201d<\/p>\n

The game, originally scheduled for Saturday, was postponed for 24 hours<\/a> due to the unrest on the streets of Minneapolis after a local nurse was fatally shot by an ICE agent during the government\u2019s concentrated immigration enforcement in the area.<\/p>\n

The Warriors arrived from Dallas on Friday morning and spent most of their time at the team hotel, away from thousands of protesters and sub-zero temperatures, before coming out for the game.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou definitely felt the weight of the city, with so many people gathering together,\u201d Moody said.\u00a0\u201cThey had certain chants and everything going on. Couldn\u2019t imagine too many different times where that group or that large of amount of people are together in the midst of a situation like this, so you definitely felt that.\u201d<\/p>\n

Despite the ongoing adverse conditions, the Warriors\u2019 energy was visible from the start. They took a 14-2 lead inside the first four minutes, faded in the second quarter and then raced away from the Wolves, posting a 66-39 advantage, in the second half.<\/p>\n

Golden State used its 21st different lineup, with Al Horford getting the start at center. He finished with 10 points and five rebounds in his second start this season. His defense, along with that of Draymond Green, were critical in limiting Julius Randle and Rudy Gobert to a combined 15 points on 5-of-14 shooting.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cWe were active,\u201d Podziemski said. \u201cIt didn\u2019t seem like they came really ready play, either. So, I know tomorrow they\u2019re going to turn it up a notch and some of those shots they missed will probably go in tomorrow.<\/p>\n

\u201cSo, we\u2019ve just got to clean some things up. But forcing as many turnovers as we did was pretty good.\u201d<\/p>\n

The question now is whether the Warriors can summon enough energy Monday night for sweep the back-to-back set. The blowout allowed Kerr to limit the minutes of the regulars \u2013 Curry and Moody each played 28 minutes to lead the team \u2013 which could be a factor. De\u2019Anthony Melton and Horford are not expected to be available.<\/p>\n

Winning on Sunday represents a small victory for the Warriors. They fought, for a little more than two hours, through the fog of a local war that affects us all.<\/p>\n

Download and follow the Dubs Talk Podcast<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"From the dog days of a season in peril to the arctic chill in the air to the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":561503,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[3786],"tags":[7,479,164,4025,4024,1104,6,932,863,255],"class_list":{"0":"post-561978","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-golden-state-warriors","8":"tag-basketball","9":"tag-golden-state","10":"tag-golden-state-warriors","11":"tag-goldenstate","12":"tag-goldenstatewarriors","13":"tag-moses-moody","14":"tag-nba","15":"tag-steph-curry","16":"tag-steve-kerr","17":"tag-warriors"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nba\/115961809059650021","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/561978","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=561978"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/561978\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/561503"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=561978"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=561978"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=561978"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}