Steve Kerr felt the loss of Steph Curry proved crucial and left the Golden State Warriors powerless to prevent the Minnesota Timberwolves from cruising into the Western Conference finals.
Curry suffered a hamstring injury in Game 1 and the Wolves took full advantage, winning four straight, including Wednesday night’s 121-110 triumph in Minneapolis, to cruise through to a meeting with either the Oklahoma City Thunder or Denver Nuggets.
“I don’t even have to think what [if],” Kerr said when asked if Curry could have carried the Warriors all the way. “I know we had a shot. I know we could have gone the distance.
“Maybe we wouldn’t have, but it doesn’t matter. Again, everything in the playoffs is about who stays healthy and who gets hot. Are you playing well at the right time?”
Respect, @Timberwolves 🤝 pic.twitter.com/WbzW8IEGQc
— Golden State Warriors (@warriors) May 15, 2025
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Butler also struggling for Warriors
Golden State were further hampered by an injury to Jimmy Butler.
“I think he was definitely compromised through all series,” Kerr said. “I think the injury in Houston definitely impacted him. He’s been playing through pain. And I think the biggest thing in this series is that without the spacing that Steph gives us, Minnesota did a great job of just playing us one-on-one. They guarded us on the perimeter. They were trying to take away our 3s, and that forced Jimmy to play a lot of one-on-one against a long, athletic team.
“They just made the decision not to leave our perimeter guys, even our non-shooters on the perimeter. They just stayed with them everywhere and made Jimmy play one-on-one. And because they have a lot of length in athleticism, it wasn’t easy for him to get anything at the rim.
“Once Steph went out, it changed everything for our whole team, but especially for Jimmy.”
Wolves answer Finch question
Julius Randle scored 29 points for the Wolves with Anthony Edwards adding 22 and Rudy Gobert 17.
The win meant Minnesota returned to the Western finals for the second year in succession.
Their hope now is to go one better than last year when, having beaten the Nuggets in seven games, they lost to the Dallas Mavericks.
“The challenge we laid down to our guys from day one was quite simple,” said coach Chris Finch.
“It was one question: ‘Were you a Western Conference finals team, or were you a team that just happened to make the Western Conference finals?’ And there’s only one way to prove that: Go out and do it again. And that was our mission all year.”
