Stephen Curry, Buddy Hield, and Jonathan Kuminga scored a combined 77 points, while Gary Payton II made two important defensive plays, helping the Golden State Warriors beat the Minnesota Timberwolves 114-106 on Sunday night in San Francisco. The Warriors held the Timberwolves scoreless for the last 4:46 of the game.
Curry led all scorers with 30 points, Hield scored 27, and Kuminga added 20 for the Warriors, who bounced back from a 107-90 loss to the Timberwolves on Friday. This win was only their second in the last eight games.
The game saw both teams take turns with double-digit leads. The Timberwolves briefly took the lead at 106-105 after a 3-pointer by Anthony Edwards with 4:47 left in the fourth quarter. But from that point on, Minnesota didn’t score again, missing their last nine shots, plus two free throws.
Kuminga put the Warriors ahead for good with a dunk off a Curry assist at 2:55. Edwards then missed two crucial 3-pointers: the first could have given the Timberwolves the lead, and the second, after Curry made two free throws, could have tied the game.
Down by 109-106, the Timberwolves had two more chances to close the gap, but Payton came up big with two defensive plays: first, he blocked a layup by Nickeil Alexander-Walker, then he stole a pass from Edwards.
Hield extended the lead with a 3-pointer, making it 112-106 with 57.7 seconds left. Draymond Green finished off the scoring with a dunk with 28.3 seconds remaining.
Edwards led the Timberwolves with 27 points and six assists but missed six of his shots during their 0-for-9 finish. Alexander-Walker scored 19 points off the bench. The Timberwolves’ four-game winning streak came to an end. Julius Randle contributed 14 points and 11 rebounds, Mike Conley added 12 points, and Naz Reid scored 10 points for Minnesota.
Curry also recorded eight assists in the game and made half of his points with five 3-pointers out of 11 attempts. Hield scored most of his points with seven 3-pointers out of 13 attempts.
Kevon Looney had 12 points and a team-high nine rebounds for the Warriors, who ended a five-game losing streak against the Timberwolves with this win.
