The last time the Wolves had won on the floor of the Warriors was in 2016. It was a feat since that season, the Warriors had established a historic record with 73 wins for 9 defeats. On Sunday, Karl-Anthony Towns’ teammates ended a 12-game losing streak at Oracle Arena and then Chase Center by winning 99-96. An all-important success in the playoff race, and clearly the Warriors can only blame themselves with a fest of bad picks in the last minute. In particular, two stray balls and a shot from 10 meters from Jordan Poole which was not necessary.
“I don’t need to classify them” answers Steve Kerr about these errors. “All three hurt. We have to close the tight ends of the match and execute the systems well. I personally have to do a better job of helping them with the execution. “We didn’t deserve to win. They dominated us. They carried out the necessary actions at the end of the match, and not us. »
Klay Thompson defends Jordan Poole
In the viewfinder, there is therefore this very distant shot from Jordan Poole when he had just recovered the rebound. There was clearly a rush. And it is still him who will send the ball into touch on the last possession. But Klay Thompson is there to defend him when asked about the team’s level of confidence in their young fullback. “She’s Up There” responds Thompsonshowing the logo of the Warriors, NBA champions.” That’s all. He played an important role. People tend to forget that. So there she is. »
Hero of the victory over the Sixers with 19 of his 33 points in the last quarter, Poole double-rushed at the worst time. Draymond Green also lost an important ball, almost in midfield, as Stephen Curry refused to come closer to the circle. In fact, the Warriors will not register a single point in the last 90 seconds!
“There were a few possessions where we rushed a bit for no particular reason” regrets the All-Star point guard. “It’s one of those situations where it’s not very pretty to see, but if you find a way out of it in the last 45 seconds, it feels different… And that’s how it is in the NBA. You have to know how to swallow the pill, and try to learn the lesson from this situation which can change the face of a series in the playoffs. It doesn’t matter if it’s ugly or the number of lost balls. »
The refusal to attack Rudy Gobert
And how does he explain this stray ball from Draymond Green where we saw him dribbling a lot and embarrassing his teammate?
“It was more a desire to seek space, to run the clock” Curry justifies himself. “They only had three fouls. It therefore required two distinct faults to be in the bonus. At first I felt like they were trying to make a mistake. Two players pounced on me. They didn’t whistle anything. So I changed sides of the field. I thought it was a little early to shoot. So I gave the ball to Draymond (Green). I’m sure we could do something, but all we’ve done up to that point was try to keep the clock ticking.”
In general, Steve Kerr did not enjoy the second half with only 41 points scored. These players refused to attack Rudy Gobert, and they paid him off in the end.
“We took a lot of bad quick shots” concludes the Golden State coach. “We didn’t pass the ball around. There were a ton of fadeaway shots from 5 yards out with someone unmarked. We didn’t move the defense with one or two more rotations. Minnesota has a good defense. They have size in all positions and if you don’t move them it will be difficult. And we didn’t. We tried to manage on our own on the pitch”.
