MINNEAPOLIS (AP) 鈥� The Golden State Warriors revealed a glimmer of hope before their in Minnesota with the announcement that Stephen Curry had been cleared for shooting drills and light on-court workouts, raising the possibility his strained left hamstring could heal in time for him to play in the series.
The Timberwolves quickly put an end to that, closing out the Western Conference semifinal series with a 121-110 victory Wednesday night.
All Curry could do was watch, the four-time NBA champion and league's career leading 3-point shooter relegated to wincing from the bench while the Wolves shredded an exhausted Warriors defense with 63% shooting.
The Warriors said earlier in the day that Curry was 鈥渕aking good progress鈥� in his recovery from suffered in the opener of the second-round series. With a three-day break before the scheduled Game 6, Curry would've have had extra time to heal, but his fourth consecutive absence was simply too much to overcome for this Warriors team that was already thin on consistent scoring.
鈥淚njuries are part of the playoffs. I learned a long time ago the playoffs are really about health and then just guys stepping up and making some big shots, big plays in key games,鈥� said coach Steve Kerr, who embraced veterans Jimmy Butler and Draymond Green on the court after the game. 鈥淭hat鈥檚 what decides every series. We鈥檝e been on both ends of that. It鈥檚 just part of it, so there鈥檚 no sense in dwelling on it.鈥�
The Warriors lost four straight games in the same postseason for the first time since 1972.
鈥淲e definitely missed Steph. That obviously goes without saying. But I鈥檓 not going to come up here and harp on Steph not being here, make it like their win is less than what it is," Green said. 鈥淭hey鈥檙e moving on. Congratulations to those guys. They beat us regardless.鈥�
Curry鈥檚 first career hamstring strain, one of that have waylaid star players during these , made it predictably harder for the Warriors to space their offense and generate scoring. They averaged 17 turnovers per game in the series and shot only 34% from 3-point range.
鈥淎 tremendous loss for Golden State, no doubt, a tremendous loss for the series. I鈥檓 sure it would鈥檝e been quite different if Steph would鈥檝e been able to play,鈥� Wolves coach Chris Finch said. 'But our guys took care of business, and that鈥檚 not something that we鈥檝e always done. I thought we had a bunch of business-like approaches in this series and took advantage of something that happened and made the best of it. We don鈥檛 need to apologize for it. We just went out and did it."
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AP NBA:
Dave Campbell, The Associated Press
