SAN FRANCISCO — This “Night! Night!” celebration had some Saginaw swag on it. In borrowing Steph Curry’s exclamatory gesture, Draymond Green wasn’t putting the Minnesota Timberwolves to bed. No, when he drove around a Curry screen and punctuated the Golden State Warriors’ 114-106 win Sunday with a thunderous dunk, as thunderous as can be for a 34-year-old with the bounce of an assistant coach, Green was putting the Timberwolves to sleep. His version wasn’t the tuck-in of a doting patriarch, but a right hook hunting for a concussion. Figuratively speaking, of course.
Green jogged all the way down court, his clasped hands and forearms made for a gigantic pillow, the smirk on his face taunting the defeated. A little extra salt for the team featuring Rudy Gobert, Green’s favorite player to disdain and the victim of the Warriors’ inverted pick-and-roll.
With the arena in a frenzy, and after kicking the Timberwolves out of the building with a thumb over his shoulder, Green did the “Night! Night!” again, this time in the form of a pose, with a wide stance and a hard grimace.
EVERY angle of Dray’s ‘Night, Night’ dunk 💤 pic.twitter.com/URkZ0urhII
— Golden State Warriors (@warriors) December 9, 2024
It’s one win, and just their second in eight games. It’s over a team that had beaten them in five straight and who they’ll have to see again in Minnesota this month. But this wasn’t about the Timberwolves. This was survival energy.
The manufactured intensity of the NBA Cup wasn’t in play. And playoff seeding is still a ways away. And despite another matchup between Curry and Anthony Edwards — one of the anointed future pillars of the NBA — this affair at Chase Center didn’t begin with big-game vibes. It wasn’t even on national television.
Yet, for the Warriors, it was a monster game. A validation game. A viability game.
Curry was in elite form. A second crack at Minnesota’s plan against him produced much better results. His 30 points and eight assists were emblematic of the fits he caused the Timberwolves.
But the Warriors beat Minnesota, finally, because Buddy Hield caught fire. Because Jonathan Kuminga went to work in the paint. Because against the Western Conference runners-up, Curry wasn’t alone in the Warriors offense.
Why did it work on this night? Why now? ‘Twas simple.
The Warriors went eight deep. All eight logged at least 20 minutes. The roles were defined and clear. Players had time to “settle,” the word Hield used frequently. Urgency prompted Golden State to refine, trim the fat and concentrate its resources. The depth that fueled their hot start is still there, just not to be used all at once.
With simplification came clarity. And with clarity came production. And with production came the belief they can hold down the fort.
What they need is clear: someone to punish opponents for the attention they pay Curry. Someone who presents a big enough problem to divert attention away from Curry, so he can do his thing with less restriction.
When they get it, they’re pretty good. Hield playing 35 minutes gave him the space to find his rhythm, and he caught fire, finishing with seven 3-pointers powering his 27 points. Kuminga, with the floor spread by shooters and only one big, attacked and attacked. Of his 20 points, 17 came from in the paint or at the free-throw line.
They showed the potency on the table should they get reliable offense next to Curry, especially from someone who can create offense for themselves and others. It is well understood within the franchise that the Warriors need another player. Someone who can go get a bucket. Someone who would thrive with Curry being face-guarded and essentially getting the space of a four-on-four. Someone who can hunt matchups and diversify how the Warriors attack.
But can they hold up before they find such a player?
The Warriors finished Sunday fifth in the Western Conference. They have 27 games (that count toward their record) between now and the Feb. 6 trade deadline. Can they go 16-11 during that stretch to keep them on about a 50-win pace?
Trades tend to happen closer to the deadline. As long as teams have time, they tend to take it. Or desperate teams can overpay for an earlier move, or perhaps risk missing out on bigger prizes when teams have to make the hard choices.
Warriors general manager Mike Dunleavy hasn’t shown a willingness to take a deal he may not like for the sake of immediate returns. So it’s a safe bet the Warriors are going to play this until they get something optimal. Which means they’ll likely need to hold on as-is until options get better.
Can Hield make enough 3s if his minutes remain steady? He’s 37 of 84 from 3-point range when playing at least 27 minutes.
Can Kuminga continue to apply pressure? He’s averaging 19.3 points when he plays 25 minutes or more. His slashing dunk was the peak of a night that seemed to show Kuminga is figuring out where he does the most damage. So the Warriors hope.
Golden State is in a good place defensively. Green’s health is a perennial concern, especially since current urgency may require more minutes from him at center. But even without that, Kevon Looney has been stellar so far this season. Andrew Wiggins is perennial good on the perimeter.
And Gary Payton put on a clinic against Anthony Edwards, who went 1-for-7 from the field in the fourth quarter.
“You have to work hard against GP,” Kuminga said. “What people don’t know is that GP is really strong. When he gets hands on your hip, he’s strong and he can control you. So you have to work really hard to get free.”
The problem has been on offense. If the Warriors make 3s, it looks great. But if they don’t, scoring is a struggle.
That’s why Sunday’s win was meaningful. The last three times the Timberwolves came to the Bay, they’ve been nothing short of stifling. They’re a matchup nightmare for Golden State. They have young, long, athletic wings who defend like they’re saving a life. They’ve got a four-time Defensive Player of the Year protecting the rim waiting for anyone who gets past the perimeter hounds.
The Warriors’ counter to such offense is Curry’s brilliance and the gravity it spawns. Such hasn’t been enough lately. They’d lost six of their last seven because in the fourth quarter, when good teams turn up, they don’t have enough outside of Curry.
A concern large enough to wonder if their hot start was but a mirage. A concern large enough to question their status as one of the better teams in the Western Conference, worthy of a playoff spot.
So the urgency of the evening was generated organically. The Warriors scored 44 points in the third quarter, then made every play down the stretch to stave off their nemesis.
“Just having organization on how we’re trying to create shots,” Curry said, “who has the ball in their hands, where everybody is spaced, to make the puzzle pieces fit. … We have to make the game as simple as possible. When we get in trouble, the chaos creates confusion, and then you start turning the ball over, and that affects morale, the other team feasts off of that, and momentum swings quickly. We controlled every possession, I threw one turnover at the beginning of the fourth, and then it didn’t feel like we had any after that because we were just organized.”
Organized, in this sense, means everyone knows when they are playing and where they are going to be when they are out there. Sunday, the Warriors spread out the Timberwolves and leaned heavily on pick-and-rolls. The aggressive Minnesota defense makes the dribble-handoffs along the perimeter difficult.
The shooters know where to spot-up. The roll man knows where and when to cut. The ball-handler has the time and room to work — since the Warriors’ philosophy of making a decision in a half-a-second is on the backburner.
So fitting was the dagger dunk of Green.
He crossed over multiple times and he crept towards Gobert, who was defending Green way out by the perimeter. Green knew what was coming, so almost playfully dribbled between his legs waiting for it to happen, lulling Gobert to sleep.
Hield was on the right wing, drawing Edwards away from helping. Kuminga was in the right corner, Payton in the left. So when Curry set the screen, the options came alive. Kuminga was curing in from the corner, so if Julius Randle had committed to the drive, Kuminga was already slashing. Payton was spaced far on the left corner, a place he’s most likely to make a 3 — or sneak backdoor if Nickeil Alexander-Walker lost vision on him. If Jaden McDaniels switched off Curry onto Green, Curry was open behind the 3-point line, ready for the dump-back pass.
But Green kept it simple. He saw the lane and exploded. He slept Minnesota with a right-hand dunk. And perhaps awakened the Warriors again.
(Top photo of Draymond Green doing the “Night! Night” celebration after his dunk in Sunday’s fourth quarter: Lachlan Cunningham / Getty Images)
