FULL ESPN REACTION Warriors DESTROY Timberwolves 99-88 without Curry, Dray, Butler & Buddy 62 Pts

FULL ESPN REACTION Warriors DESTROY Timberwolves 99-88 without Curry, Dray, Butler & Buddy 62 Pts

guys do defensively with him? Uh, just continue it, man. And uh, he’s he’s a tough cover and we know that, but uh, we just got to keep making it tough on him. Thank you, buddy. Thank you. Well, they made it tough tonight and Buddy Heield made a ton of shots again. And with the Warriors win, all four road teams won game one in their respective series. It’s the first time, Kelsey, that all four road teams have won the series opener in the conference semifinals. All right, Kevin. For more on this, we are joined now by ESPN basketball analyst Chana Gumay. And Chana, Steph Curry, we saw him leave the game in the second quarter with that injury. Yet the Warriors, they still found a way to win. They looked just fine without Steph. What do you think was the biggest catalyst for them in this game getting the win? First of all, you heard that beautiful sound from Buddy Heels. I work too hard to fail. Like I feel like I want to tattoo that on me even though I’ll never get a tattoo. But um the the player that I have my eye on, we all knew that it was likely going to be the Draymond Green game defensively, but I did not have the Draymond Green game offensively on my bingo card. He had 18 points. He knocked down four of five to start the game from three. He also had eight rebounds and six assists in 35 minutes. I did not know that Draymond was going to do his best Steph impression when Steph was out and only played 13 minutes. But you also have to give credit to Buddy Heels. The last two games he averaged 28.5 points, knocking down on average seven threes. So they found shooters when the greatest shooter of all time was inside the locker room. Buddy able to just build on that success that he just had in game seven when Steph was having an offshooting night early on and they get the win. On the other side of things, the Timberwolves, they struggled from three. They were five of 29. How do you explain this poor shooting night? I know. Just look away. We can’t ignore it though. Look, you you you mentioned it. I was like 1 2 3 4 5. They only made five threes. 17% from three. You’ve seen many teams in the NBA this postseason live and die by the three. For three quarters, it felt like the Minnesota Timberwolves could not buy a bucket. Ant hit his first three with 258 left in the game in the fourth quarter. He was the only starter to make a three. So, if you think about it, Anthony Edwards, who led the NBA in three-point makes, the shot was not there. So moving forward, the Timberwolves need to figure out if we’re not knocking down our shots. We can’t let that impact our defense. They were pretty passive, you know, defensively. This is not the Timberwolves team that we’ve come to love and enjoy because they play with a lot of fire. They tried. They made a push late, but it was too late. Too little too late from Anthony Edwards and the Timberwolves in this one. Chennai always right on Sports Center, including further reaction from Warriors and Wolves. You will hear from Anthony Edwards plus in the East. Watch out for the Timberwolves in the second half. They’re going to take advantage of this. They did not do that in this game. No, they did not. They kept shooting a lot of threes and I think they only made five threes tonight. But I like what they did later in the fourth quarter, but you got to give credit to Jimmy Brother Draymond. And you got to give a lot of credit to Buddy Hill. Those guys continued to play the right way. Uh make the right reads. Draymond’s basically a point guard just like Jimmy. And they kept making shots even though Tim Boys kept chipping away. chipping away. They started off slug as you could tell. A couple days off didn’t work for them. But give credit to the Warriors to continue to compete compete the way they did in the second half when knowing Steph Curry was out. Yeah, I’m I’m I’m stuck, guys, because you got to give Steve Curry and and what the Warriors did and showed their championship predicy on how they mucked the game up a little bit, continued to have their organized chaos where now Buddy became Steph running off screens and and just kind of had the Wolves on their heels, which was shocking. Then when you look at the stat sheet, John, I would have never guessed the Warriors would have outrebound them by 10 knowing they don’t really have any bigs. They didn’t start Kavon Lun like didn’t play Jackson Hayes. I mean, excuse me, uh, Jackson Trace Jackson at all. So, it’s like, how do they outrebound? Whether grit mucking the game up, if you will, and then John, we talked about, you know, how much I love the three ball. It’s like it was just too many three-point shots taken by the Wolves knowing that they had any bigs while they weren’t attacking the paint a little more to wear them down. just very shocked by that. Yeah, to your point, I mean, 18 offensive rebounds for the Golden State Warriors, if you’re Minnesota, that that cannot happen, especially with the size difference. So, when you’re watching the game, those were effort rebounds. So, it wasn’t like the Warriors got in there and outboxed you out. They were just in there clawing and scrapping and and as we like to say, those 50-50 balls, the Warriors got most every 50-50 ball in the second half. You know what’s kind of crazy is in that third quarter, um, the Warriors actually extended their lead without Steph Curry. And a big part of that was Buddy Heield. And you look at his numbers here, 24 points in this game, five of eight from three. John, it’s not like he started off this game great. He was struggling in that first half. Well, third quarter, you know, I mean, I know I feel like they ran their offense a little bit more through him. Some of the players you probably run for Steph Curry, you ran for Buddy Hill knowing Steph was out. But you got to give credit to like Steve Curry and their coaching staff because the second quarter before we get to the halftime second quarter only had 11 points from the tipp. They started off from the beginning of the game as like three after three not attacking the basket. So I bet you when they watch this film, how they attack the basket in the second half is the way they got to do it in the first half because you do that for the whole game. Now you get those drive and kick threes instead of coming off pick and roll shooting those threes. But I looked at it as Judas Randall, you can’t give me three rebounds. Oh my goodness. You got to have more than three rebounds. Like Antman got 14. Rud had 11 in the time he had. When we was watching the game the first three minutes he had five rebounds. Yep. He has to be dominant, but Jules Rand has to be more dominant on the glass because they’re playing small ball against him. Minnesota shooting just 30. NBA insider Bill Ryder in CBS Sports NBA analyst John Gonzalez. And y’all, the Warriors, they put a hurting on the tables. I know they won by 11, but it was as many as 23. However, if Steph Curry is unable to go or he’s at least he’s not 100% with that hamstring injury for the rest of the series, Bill, how does this change the complexion of the series? Well, the answer should be if things were normal and everything were right side up. They they can’t win the series, but we’re five games into the second round and a home team hasn’t won yet. Jonathan Kaminga is getting quality minutes and Buddy Heale apparently is Steph Curry when Steph Curry’s not around. So, the honest answer is hell. I I don’t know. I mean, I think the answer, if Steph Curry can’t play, it’s really hard to believe that the Timberwolves going to shoot 181 17% from three, that Anthony Edwards is going to be unable to basically score in the first half, and that this Warriors defense, and in fairness, it is the best defense in the NBA since Jimmy Butler came on board from Miami, but that they’re going to be able to limit the Timberwolves the way that they did. So, that the answer, Chris, should be, right? I’m confident. I think the answer is they cannot win this series if Steph Curry doesn’t return and isn’t able to beat Steph Curry. But it’s been such a bizarro second round of these playoffs that it’s hard to believe any analysis that we give I think at this point. Yeah. Right now everything left is right and uh up is down and nobody knows. I mean Steph was really good in 13 minutes. He had 13 points tonight and then all of a sudden the hamstring and you go uh oh this is a bummer. Now the good part for the Warriors was Draymond Green had not arguably I think his best offensive game these playoffs. He was good in game seven against the Rockets, but he was excellent tonight and he really took over that distributor role. And Jimmy Butler also stepped forward as well. But I’m with Bill that without Steph Curry, it’s going to be a really tough slog for the Warriors and a tough time. It’s hard to imagine them winning this series without after the game. Even heard Jimmy Butler. Man, I hope Steph Curry comes back because it makes things a lot easier for the rest of the team. And the Wolves, it’s hard for me to believe that the Wolves are going to have a shooting night as bad as they had tonight. I mean, like Anthony Edwards had one point in the first half. the whole team didn’t have a three-pointer in the first half. You have to go back seven years to find a game where the Wolves didn’t have a three-pointer in the first half. So, yeah, the Wolves were bad tonight, but I think that they also, this is sort of an anomaly. So, if you’re the Wolves, you want Steph to be out for as long as he can be out cuz I think that they’ll course correct in terms of their offense. Yeah, 17% from three for the T- Wolves. Just just something that you cannot have when you’re going up the Warriors, the way they were shooting. But we’re going to get to them in a little bit. But you guys mentioned Draymond Green, right? He was locked and loaded from three in that first half. You talked about, you know, Jimmy Butler coming almost a triple double, right? Jonathan Kaminga actually playing quality minutes. But Buddy Heield, John, did we expect this from Buddy after what he did in game seven? Cuz I sure didn’t. I didn’t. Uh Buddy Heield has resurrected his shooting career. Bill and I laugh about this on the podcast. He was horrendous in Philadelphia last year except for one game in the playoffs. Just the latest person to leave Philly and remember how to shoot. We forgot when he went to Philly that he was one of the best three-point shooters of his era and he’s doing it again. And without Steph, they absolutely need all of his offense. And yeah, he’s really found his shooting stroke. A game high 24 points. Fantastic. And then you had Draymond Green also not exactly a knockdown lights out three-point shooter. He went four of 10 from three. That’s his most three-pointers made in a playoff game in eight years. So, yeah, this was such an anomaly of a game in so many different ways, it’s hard to kind of parse what actually happened tonight. But if you’re the Warriors, being the latest team to win on the road in the second round, and none of these home teams have won, you’ll take that all day long. Yeah, the the the the the heddy heel renaissance is magical. It’s also coming at a at really important times. Game seven, literally must-win game. Buddy Heels’s amazing. This is a game one, but Stephen Curry goes down. You feel like, man, maybe the whole theory is going to get away from us. Buddy Hill steps up and it just, you know what it reminds me of. And John, I’m sorry I’ve been spending too much time with you. So now I’m going to lean into the anti- sort of Philly, the Philly toxicity, the theory of Philadelphia toxic toxicity. But this is a reminder, Buddy Heel, that it’s not just who you are, it’s where you are. True in life, true in your career, certainly true in the NBA. And you’ve got Jerry Stackhouse, who’s the defensive coordinator there. That’s his role. And Buddy Hill, they talked about this on the broadcast. Look, he’s not a defensive player of the year specialist obviously. But best defensive effort of his career, people are telling you in Golden State. We’ve seen the shooting spark again the la last couple days. And so sometimes for a guy like Buddy Heel who’s had a career and who’s been a really important player and in a league where three-point shooting matters, used to be valued before he went to that other place, that place we shout not name where John is from, going to Golden State has unlocked the guy that he used to be. And look, they have to have Steph. We’ve already had that conversation. But when you don’t have a guy like Steph Curry or even if he does come back, let’s lean into optimism. You have to have secondary and third guy step up and Buddy Hill’s on a pretty good run now saying, “Hey, you know what? May maybe I can do it.” Yeah, he’s looks very confident in his role right now with or without Steph on the floor. Of course, as you guys mentioned, when Steph is on the floor, it makes much things much easier. Now, the T-Bulls, they’re minus 126 to still win the series, right? But when you think about the way they played John and the way Anthony Edwards just was not in his right mindset until that second half and eventually it was too late. Uh how should they be feeling going into game two? Because the fans they were leaving, you know, even when it was like a nine-point game uh with about under a minute to go. Yeah, I mean maybe they were feeling themselves a little bit after that Lakers series. They won in five games. They had some time off. They probably spent a little time in LA. That’s okay. Uh tonight not their best effort. They only had 31 points at the half, their lowest half. uh lowscoring half of the season. So, not great. And then Ant, he was really scuffling. He had one point at the half. Uh he didn’t score that until one minute left in the half. He didn’t score his first field goal until 28 minutes into the game. He didn’t make his first three until late in the fourth quarter. I just can’t imagine that that’s going to continue. And by the way, despite all that, despite the fact that Ant did not look great, he still ended up with a double double. 23 points, 14 rebounds. He was active at the defensive end, unlike Jason Tatum last night where he was just settling for threes. I thought Ant was trying to get going by getting to the rim and I thought that was an encouraging thing for them. And then you know Nas Reed he hit what three of their five threes. So there were there were signs of life or at least of effort from the Wolves. Terrible shooting night, terrible result from them, but they never gave up. And again, it’s it’s very difficult for me to believe that this is going to continue over the course of the series. Although the Warriors are, as Bill noted, an incredibly good defensive team since landing Jimmy Butler. So maybe they have to work a little bit harder. the Wolves do than they had to work in the Lakers series, but I would expect them to climb back into this. Yeah, I’m John. I’m with you. I mean, Anthony Edwards is going to be fine, and I like the fact that he was aggressive and getting to the rim. I know that you guys praised Jimmy Butler. I thought Jimmy Butler was a little passive at times down the stretch when they needed some buckets. Anthony Edwards kind of like Donovan Mitchell, not not quite as electric, not obviously a 48-point night, but it was it was nice to see Anthony Edwards not being able to shoot. Just make, you know, I’ll get to the rim, I’ll attack the rim, I’ll play downhill. Ant’s going to be fine. He’s a great player. I saw John smirk when he brought up maybe they were in LA too long because John lives in LA and I live in LA. So we both kind of know we kind of know what that LA flu can look like if unlike us we you know you are young and very very cool like Anthony Edwards. They’re going to get back into rhythm. This just brings us back to the I think the main question of this series. Anthony Edwards is going to be fine and he won’t even have to be fine if Stephen Curry is not. And so I’m not worried about Ants. It’s the other and I know we’ve discussed this but all roads I think circle back to that. It’s really about Steph Curry and whether he’s around because Anthony Edwards has shown he’s a baller, he’s a closer, he’s a winner, and he’s going to get to that level, I think, multiple times in this series, right? Some nights you don’t have it. You may unload the clip, but on this night, Anthony Edwards didn’t have it, so he goes to the drawing board layups. I thought the Warriors did a good job contesting at the rim and not conceding those easy layups. I think we should just let let Draymond play against Rudy Goar every game the rest of the playoffs. All right. He was extremely motivated today. 18 of his points, 16 in the first half. And you love to see Draymond aggressive from the three-point line. And look at this JTA as Draymond Green scored 14 points in that second quarter, including four made threes in that frame. They just allowed 31 points in that first half. It’s the fewest points allowed in the first half of a playoff game. Defense. Defense won that first half there, JTA. Absolutely. Defense. Like selfch check. Defense. Defense. Selfch check or defense. Self check, bro. They they could they were going to call like this, but we’ll give him defense. 31’s 31 like he was seeing body at the rims or bodies at the rim, but also guys were pursuing. They never gave up on the play. So Ant Edwards always felt bodies near him on every shot. But think about Draymond’s offense in that quarter. People always discuss his defense. We we brought him up in the pregame show for game number seven. His offense was needed. He scored 16. Cesone in the first quarter with eight points. tonight in that second quarter he scores 14 JTA. So his offense does matter for this basketball team and for them moving forward. Absolutely. When Draymond Green is scoring the basketball, it’s a totally different team. Um obviously it’s more offensive firepower, but the the offensive flow looks a lot different. Draymond Green can, you know, get into facilitating Steph can find space. Uh guys are playing him a little bit more honest instead of, you know, sagging off in the paint or hanging out at the hash mark. So I just think it gives Golden State a totally different look when he’s hitting shots. I mean, it’s their shots, too. It’s It’s demoralizing for the defense of the other team when they’re sagging off saying, “This is the game plan. We’re going to lay off a Draymond and let him take those shots.” He hits those shots, and you know, Draymond’s not going to be quiet about him either. So, when he when he hits everyone he hits, he’s talking to the bench. It is demoralizing for the other team’s defense. But the one one of the bigger ones that he hits was when Steph got hurt. It was calling for the for calling for a sub. Draymond hits that three. They go to a timeout. That was a good momentum building three that just led them through the half. Well, defensively, this strategy that Minnesota used tonight is exactly what Draymond’s more comfortable with and the Warriors are comfortable with it. They’ve seen this for years where you lay off him. What Houston did was pressure the basketball with a small take the ball movement out. Not as comfortable, but that last game in Houston, Draymond got going offensively. I thought that confidence carried over and tonight with with no one guarding him with his confidence was a huge difference. Those shots are going to be there. If Gobear is on the floor, Draymond’s going to have these looks all night. And I said pregame, I’m not kidding around. If Draymond can continue to have games like this, 166 and six, this team can win the championship. Wow. 16 points in the first half for Draymond Green. And in the third quarter, we all discussed the first six minutes of the third quarter was going to be huge for the go to Warriors. How would Minnesota come out after being down 13 at the half and only scoring 31 points. Now Minnesota was starting to charge back here, cut it to 13. Big time shot there by Jimmy Butler. Bank was open late on the team. Nice steal by Pat Spencer. He’s running to break it in. Buddy Hill. Look, Pat Spencer and Buddy Hill running in the same spot here. Look out the way. Nice little screen right there by Pat. No doubt. Gets the steal and a screen unlocks Buddy Hill there again. Buddy Hill scoring 22 of his 24 points in the second half. Look how fun this is right here. And you heard Brian Anderson on the call for TNT. That’s straight out of the YFCA bully. That’s a big time move. Pass Pat Spencer can play. He’s going to get a deal from some if not the Warriors. He’s going to be playing somewhere next week in the NBA. He’s a baller. 36-29 score in that third quarter. Yeah, those points are really important. You know, Pat Spencer going downhill, setting those screens. I mean, these are the plays that you look at past Spence’s box score tonight. What do you have, what, seven points? Four points, four points tonight. Well, these are the things that you don’t get to see. You don’t You miss the screen for for for Buddy Hill. You missed the big We saw it. I know. But when you’re looking at the box score, you missed the screen for for Buddy Hill. you miss the bucket going downhill and the point where you really need a bucket that builds the momentum and then they come down and get a stop and just keep running. So, you got to give a lot of credit to the Warriors defense and the Warriors offense just the ability to come out and respond in the third quarter. And then JTA, you think about Buddy Hill 16 points in that frame, pick it up where he left off in game seven. He had an atrocious first half. He goes 0 for seven, then he heats up knowing that Stephen Curry was out for the remainder of the game. Shoo or shoot. You know what? One day Klay Thompson told me, he said, “I don’t care how many shots I miss, I’m never going to stop shooting.” And I think Buddy has the same mentality. Shoot or shoot. He kept it going. Kept shooting with confidence. And like you said, I think it rolls over from the previous game, right? You either rested or test it and they came in with the flow and ready to go. That that mentality justified. Buddy Hill’s mentality is justified much like Klay Thompson because they put in the the practice time. They they get their shots up. They get their reps up. They know if they get open enough, they’re going to knock those shots down. Their confidence never waver. Buddy Hill became the first player in NBA history to make 14 threes over a twoame span in playoff history. That’s absurd when you think about Klay Thompson, Stephen Curry, and all the threes they put up on a daily basis. But let’s pick up the fourth quarter tape cuz Anthony Edwards started cooking. He started going to the rack here getting layup after layup and the Warriors had to hold them off with all these mini runs here. And Edwards, that’s just disgusting. That’s what he’s capable of doing. He can finish around the rim. That’s one of the few layups he made tonight in game number one. Again, Warriors up 12. Crowd starting to get to it at the target center. Edward tough. Did you see that, Bonte? I did see it. I took a note, too. He’s a special special talent here. Warriors up nine. Think about this. Minnesota cut a 23-point lead to nine. But there goes Buddy Buckets to halt that mini run for the Minnesota Triple Wolves later on. Up 12. Buddy Hill gets caught up in the air. Jimmy Butler shot clock running it down. Pulls up. And that was huge right there, Fezy. Yeah, we’re going to need a lot more of those from Jimmy Butler. You got to be an attack mode, especially with Steph right now. But still Steve Kerr company did not feel safe because Anthony Edwards continue to attack the rim. T- Wolves down nine once again. Jimmy Butler finding GP2. That’s a huge shot there. That was a huge three from GP2. And you get Anthony Edwards here. First three he’s made. Remember he went 0411 in game five against the LA Lakers. One of five tonight. So his three-point shot. He’s in a bit of a slump from the perimeter but up nine. Two minutes and change left. Jimmy Butler surveying the floor. Go find Buddy Hill. Dagger JTA. I think these were big timely shots. Look, the score is one thing. The flow of the game is another thing. This is a series of seven games possibly. You want you don’t want to play with the game. You want to keep that momentum. You want to keep that pressure. And I think that’s what go State did. You know, they hit big timely shots when Minnesota put on a run. And although they did, you know, kind of find a flow, they had Dubs had an answer for every run. And I think that was really important. The goal is to get a split. They’ve already got that. Now, they can get greedy. Obviously, Steph’s health is the main concern. Both teams made 34 field goals, three-point shots, 15. Was it 18 to five? 185 for the plus 39, Bonte, for you guys at San Francisco State mathematicians. Made five threes, the Minnesota Timberwolves. Three of those came from the big man, Nas Reed. So, he’s going to be riding that high coming into the next game. So, you got to continue him. Think about that. Five of 28 tonight for Minnesota from three. And that game five against the LA Lakers at one. They went seven of 40, 99 to 88. The turnovers were up for both teams. The game got it clunky. The game got clunky at times, especially in the second half. Points in the paint. Look at the points in the paint. The Warriors want to close the gap there. 5228 advantage for the T- Wolves. But they were able to offset that with their three-point shooting. Did you see those rebounding numbers, though? I do see those rebounding numbers. 5141. So, the number one offensive rebounding team in the league. And there’s a lot out there, too. There was a lot out there as Minnesota put up a lot of bricks. They shoot 43% from the three-point line. But let’s hear from Steve Curry as hopefully he has an update on Stephen Curry’s left hamstring strain presented by BMW. Steve who we weren’t sure was gonna play as he joins us here on Toyota Warriors postgame live. Chris will fess Bonte Hill GP2. First of all, how’s your elbow feeling? Are you over the illness that you missed game seven? Cuz you know we all know it’s tough to keep you off the floor to score eight timely points tonight. How’s that elbow though? I see that big wrap there on that left elbow. No, it’s all good. just precaution getting it right. But yeah, after after game seven, I was upset with myself, but uh you know, bounced back, fresh legs, and you know, big guys, everybody came through today. All right, GB2, when Draymond hits threes, he’s talking to the other team, he’s talking to their bench, but is that also firing you guys up? Absolutely. You already know he gets him going. He’s been shooting the lights out second half of the season. So, you know, we trust and believe, you know, when he puts it up, it could be a big boom. GP2, what’s up, man? I want to ask you about guarding Anthony Edwards tonight. You did a great job on him. First half, you hold that team to 31 points, a playoff record. And Edwards has to get 22 shots for 23 points. What’s your strategy on defending the Ant-Man? Just make it tough, you know, limit his touches and his catches. um you know and um shade them to my guys and you know uh trust the guys behind me to be there and uh you know make it tough. It just make them finish it at the rim and just make it tough for him. Now you guys win this game despite Steph Curry missing the last 32 minutes and 19 seconds. What’s the mindset from everybody after you see your leader go out with a hamstring strain? Uh he’s had our back countless times this season. So, you know, to have this back of this game right here, it was big. Uh, you know, to go up one zero on the road, give him a little time to, um, you know, figure it out. And, you know, when he comes back, you know, we’ll be back on the floor. GP2, talk about Buddy Heel. He goes game six, zero points. Game seven, 33. Tonight, first half, two points, explodes in the second half. Talk about Buddy. Bow, bow, bow. Bow bow. Bow, bow, bow. It only he he only he only needs one. He needs to see one go in. Once that goes, you know, they they they they pour in. So we get them good looks. Uh and you know, we get to see Buddy Love hit the bow. So bow bow bow. Yeah. Must be on. Oh yeah. Yeah. Yeah. You know, he takes he takes a little sometime. He takes crazy ones, but uh you know, he he’s a big shot taker and shot maker. So you know, when we see it drop, we know he he got it going. When are you going to hit the bow bow bow? Cuz this is the first time. I just heard about it yesterday. GP2, let’s see it, man. You ready to get the bow bow bow? In about in about a month or so, I give you a bow bow bow. I like that answer. I like that answer. TP2, man. Great game tonight. Timely three there in the fourth quarter. Get some rest, brother. We’ll see you Thursday night. Thanks, fell. See you. Anytime. Gary Pton, the second eight points, but obviously the big story coming out of game number one is Steph Curry’s hamstring strain. You just heard from Steve Curry. He says that Stephen Curry is dayto-day and unlikely to play in game number two. Now, we’re looking at the data from 2019 when Steph and Clay were all younger. Klay Thompson missed just one game with a hamstring strain. Came back in that series, but Steph’s 37. Hamstring hamstrings are tricky. So, you don’t want to push this here, but the Warriors do have some leeway after at least guaranteeing a split here. Fezy fell. I mean, you got to think about the grueling seven game series this team just went through. that played what last game 44 45 minutes in the game and this was just in just two days ago. Now you fly to Minnesota and then you have to play another game, another intense playoff game. Uh hamstring injuries are overuse injuries. So that’s that’s something that you have to watch out for and it’s not something that you could take lightly. You could take some time off, come back and that could still also keep bothering you. So it’s something that you have to make sure it’s fully healed for the Warriors. I love the way they responded in the second half. That says a lot about the mentality of this team. There’s no there’s no getting back. There’s no no taking a step back. Everybody continue to be aggressive and that’s gonna have to be the mindset moving forward without Steph. Yeah, we just hope Steph, you know, hope and pray he gets healthy as soon as possible. He puts so much energy and effort in the offseason to get to this point in the season. So, we hope a speedy recovery does happen. Um, but you know, listen to Steve Kerr’s comments and and you never know with a hamstring, right? You can’t really tell the damage. You get an MRI. The one thing he didn’t say was Steph feels like he’s going to be okay, right? Because you really The hamstrings are very tricky as Fesa said, and there’s something that kind of lingers. So, um, they got to be careful with this obviously, but again, I’m just hoping he gets healthy soon because let’s be let’s be real. Yeah, without Steph Curry, I mean, we like sharing the wealth and giving everyone their love. This is Steph Curry. This always been Steph Curry. Always will be Steph Curry. You need your superstar on the floor. There’s no doubt about that. and he was locked in. Looked like he was about to drop a 40 burger here. But you win game number one. Obviously, he may miss game two with this hamstring strain. So, we’ll continue to monitor his injury as the gays days go along here. But look, Buddy Hild all of a sudden he picked up a slap. Splash cousin splash. What? I don’t care. But bow bow bow. Buddy Hill is lighting it up. Now, this is how his game started. They had to call an early timeout at 22 because Buddy Hill had his warm-up shirts on. But that’s the unconscious shooter. That’s by now. Hey, I don’t care what shorts I got on. Just get me open. I’m shooting shots. I I get off to a slow start. Yeah, I’ll change my shorts. I’m still shooting though. Get me buckets. 0 for seven in the first half. Shorts. Yeah, who cares? Because it’s third quarter explosion for the Dubs. Jerry scores 22 of his 24 in the second half. Desi, I also didn’t know you call a timeout to get the shorts replaced. I’ve never seen that before. So, Buddy Hill, whatever you did today, you got to do it again next game. I don’t know about that. Now, making the shots. Yeah, the third player in NBA history to have back-to-back playoff games with 20 plus points and five A3 threes and zero turnovers. Mully, no. It’s a great performance. And you know, GP2 mentioned Buddy Healed to me, he has that shooters mentality, which is always the next one’s going to go in, but it’s not delusional confidence because he spends so much time and repetition and preparing his shot. He just he just needs attempts. Uh, and look, he’s a career 40% three-point shooter. He’s made as many threes as Stephan Clay the last four or five seasons. This is what he does. So, his confidence will never waver. It’s just a matter of getting him open. Uh and and I think teams are going to start being worried when he has a, you know, zero point game or zero point half because you know what’s coming. Well, in addition to the fact that he’s making these threes, Buddy’s also playing defense. I like the fact that they’re punishing the opponents both ways. Buddy has Rudy Goar. You can’t. Sometimes Rudy Goar is trying to guard him. Well, he’s running around these screens and making these bigger defenders pay. He’s rebounding. He’s defending, but he’s playing a really allaround game right now for the Warriors. And without Steph, you need him to go above and beyond. He’ll be up on that scouty report for game number two without Stephen Curry. But Draymond Green, he may move up that scattered report on the offensive end as well because we know how great he is on the defensive end of the floor. But his points production tonight for the Golden State Warriors, 1816 16 coming in the first half to stabilize. The first half was hairy back and forth. A lot of turnovers. Draymond Green in that second quarter. Fezy four made threes. He scores 18 points, 16 coming in the first half. And then of course he battle with foul trouble there in the second half, but eight rebounds, six assists, two steals and really stabilizing the offense and the defense. I thought he was excellent tonight in game number one. Yeah, he was the emotional leader tonight, Bonte. He did everything. You know, hitting shots, yes, but also you see the six assists. He was playing the point forward in the second half. He was the guy distributing the ball, getting the ball to Buddy, getting the ball to Jimmy, just figuring out ways to get this team organized. Steve Ker with the different lineups. He had Pat Spencer in the game with with Draymond. He had Quinton Post at some point. He had JK. He just trying to find the right combination, but a lot of the the the constants was Jimmy Butler and Draymond Green. Both those guys came in through the clutch. Coming off a clutch, incredible performance in game seven. He picked up right where he left off. And I think this defensive strategy is more advantageous for Draymond’s offensive game because Gobear is way off him. He has the ability to find those threes anytime he wants. He can dribble handoff. He loves playing in space. So, he has that. He’s going to have a great series. I mean, I just when you look at those shots, Bonte Infesus, if you just look at the the backspin, the arc, and his balance, he can make these shots every I’ve said this years ago, he’s a 40% three-point shooter if he gets his confidence right and he’s willing to take them. I think his confidence is right right now. now and he knows it needs to be right without Stephen Curry who is unlikely to play in game number two. He’s going to get the MRI tomorrow with the left hamstring strain. But defensively, offensively, round one in this series goes to Draymond Green, of course, against Rudy Goar. But let’s go back out to the target center of Minnesota. Pat Spencer, he joins us here on Toyota Warriors postgame live. Pat, hell of a game for you tonight. It’s not going to show up in the box score, but we thought we just showed the clip of you making that steal and then setting the screen for Buddy Hild in the corner. That was a big time sequence there. Congratulations on a solid game. Did you know your number was going to get called or was that just something when Steph Curry went down, you said, “You know what? Let me lace up my tennis shoes a little bit.” Yeah, unfortunately Steph went down and uh you know, I’ve just had to stay ready these whole playoffs. So, um hoping to get him back ASAP, but uh just staying ready, trying to be a professional. Pat, people do not understand what it takes to be ready when your name is called like it has been. What does it take? How much work do you have to put in to be ready for these moments? Man, I love the work. So, that’s easy. You know, I think uh the best part for me is is I’m wired a little bit differently. Uh I’m going to compete every time I step on the floor. So, not scared of anybody across the lines. And um the work is the work, man. I put in the work all year, year in and year out. So, uh excited to get the opportunity. Unfortunately, it had to be Steph going down to get it. Like I said, get him back ASAP. Uh I think we can make a run here. Pat, when after Steph went down, uh second half, Buddy Heel steps up. Draymond had a great offensive night. Talk about the resilience of the others uh after Steph goes down, including yourself. Uh Buddy’s been unbelievable, man. Obviously, Gary, uh and Draymond’s just been elite defensively, man. D play or not, that guy’s the defensive player of the year. So, um the ability to run guys off the line, you know, and just know that Draymond’s back there to protect you is off the hook. Um and like I said, Buddy’s been freaking elite shooting the the cover off the ball right now. Knock on wood, he’ll keep that going. Um, you want to talk about putting in work, that guy’s in the gym night in and night out. So, uh, I love where we’re at. Want to get Steph healthy, but uh, this group is is wired a little bit differently. What is the What is the effect of Draymond Green when he hits all those threes for the offense? What What is the effect on the team? It’s huge. You know, you game plan and and obviously you play the numbers at this level quite a bit. Um, we want to get Naz Reed off the line for obvious reasons, and there’s a lot of teams that want to make Gary and Draymond shoot threes. Uh, if those guys can make teams pay, it it’s night and day for us offensively as far as spacing. So, um, we want to obviously have Jimmy out there with Draymond as much as we can and Draymond’s knocking down threes, it’s a whole different ball game. Now, we discuss that all the time on the show. When Draymond Green does hit that three-point shot, it opens up the entire offense. But you mentioned something earlier here in this interview. You said mentioned that you’re not afraid to mix it up with anybody. I was waiting for somebody to say something. We don’t trust me, we understand that. We saw game five down in Houston where Taran threw a towel at you and you was able to catch it. Not only did you show physicality by getting it to his face, but you showed your athleticism. Is that just the lacrosse background? Is that the toughness coming from the lacrosse? I think it’s lacrosse and I think it’s a little bit uh just being off in the head. My brother and I have been going at it for years. So, uh you grow up in a household with with three brothers. you uh you learn to fight. If you’re willing to kill your brother over game of pickup, the dude on the other side of the lines is going to get it. So, we just want to know that. We just want to know, was the fine covered? Uh the fine was covered. Well, you know what? Half of it was covered. I’m going to put that out there. Half of it was covered. We’re working on the other half right now. Oh, man. Somebody owes you I owe you. All right. I’m playing. I’m playing. These guys have had my back all year. I’ve gotten a I’m probably tech per minute. I might be leading the league. So these guys don’t owe me anything. I’ve had too many. Well, at one point you were leading the league. I think he was second out of [Music] You don’t Make up. [Music] Hello. [Music] Foreign speech. Foreign speech. Foreign speech. [Music] There Hello there. Get down. Let me go. You know, Oh my god. Wait, you’re [Music] When I make I don’t know. Hello. [Music] Fore speech. Get down. [Music]

FULL ESPN REACTION Warriors DESTROY Timberwolves 99-88 without Curry, Dray, Butler & Buddy 62 Pts