At halftime in Game 1, tears streamed from Stephen Curry’s face. Steve Kerr hugged him.
The Golden State Warriors were leading the Minnesota Timberwolves by 13, the same number of minutes Curry played before he returned to the locker room with a hamstring injury. Curry scored 13 points in those 13 minutes on 5 of 9 from the floor and 3 of 6 from deep.
Curry’s injury stripped his fast start away from him. He did not return in Game 1, but the Warriors beat Minnesota 99-88 to take a 1-0 series lead. Curry was not emotional because he missed Game 1; he was emotional because there was a likely chance his season was over.
The next morning, Vegas favored the Timberwolves -210 to advance, larger favorites than before the series. Minnesota was 11.5-point favorites to win Game 2. Curry’s tears indicated that he knew the series was over. His injury sucked the excitment out of the matchup.
The Timberwolves have been on a prove-it tour during their playoff run. Anthony Edwards has been sending superstars home like Thanos collecting infinity stones. He would have loved to add Curry to the group. Instead, Edwards never got the opportunity as the Wolves advanced past the Warriors in five games on Wednesday with a 121-110 win. Curry never returned.
Still, Curry’s injury should not detract from Minnesota’s accomplishment. The Wolves are in the Western Conference Finals for the second-straight season, and they had to overcome more than most expected of them to reach this point.
“The challenge we laid down to our guys from Day 1 was quite simple,” Finch said after Game 5. “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. There is only one way to prove that – go out and do it again. That was our mission all year.
“It took a lot of growing pains, but the team is coming together and the right time and playing its best basketball.”
On November 27, the Timberwolves were 8-10, sitting 12th in the Western Conference standings. They looked far from the team that made the Conference Finals last season. Fans couldn’t help but hold onto the previous season’s successes. The team was also thinking about them. They were probably thinking about Finch’s comments, questioning if they were a Western Conference Finals team. At a certain point, they had to let go of last season.
Trading Karl-Anthony Towns for Julius Randle and Donte DiVincenzo days before training camp threw a wrench into Minnesota’s transition period. They had to learn on the fly, meaning fans could see the process play out on the court. For every bad pass turnover, black hole possession from Randle, or clogged-up offensive sequence, the fanbase’s hope for the Timberwolves repeating 2024’s playoff run dwindled.
At points earlier in the regular season, fans probably thought there was little chance the Wolves would get out of the first round, let alone make another run to the Conference Finals. The fit with Randle looked poor, and the Wolves were a bad team.
However, Wednesday night at Target Center, everything that pained the fans was in the review mirror. The ailments were still visible, but they no longer impeded the Wolves.
COUNT THAT! pic.twitter.com/c3AgTLHMOg
— Minnesota Timberwolves (@Timberwolves) May 15, 2025
Randle rolled in an and-one to close the first half, giving him 15 points on the night. He was shooting 6 of 9 from the floor, bulldozing through any one-on-one matchup. More importantly, it capped off Minnesota’s 17-5 run to close the half, building a 15-point lead.
The crowd roared around him, probably louder than ever before. Randle waved his hands to pump them up before stepping to the free-throw line and making the free throw.
“I remember playing here earlier in the season, and it looked like a tough fit,” Steve Kerr said postgame regarding Randle. “They didn’t have the spacing. They missed Towns. Fast forward to now, he was 13 for 18 tonight. He was incredible the whole series. We couldn’t stop him.”
Randle finished Game 5 with 29 points, eight rebounds, and five assists on 11 of 12 from two-point range in 42 minutes. He was Minnesota’s MVP once again, which he has been for most every game in the postseason.
Fans at Target Center probably forgot entirely about the version of Randle they saw in the first few months of the season. They were captivated by a player performing at a level better than fans could have hoped for when he joined the team.
However, the shadows of the November Wolves were still lurking on Wednesday.
“Fortunately, we had the cushion,” Finch said postgame. “I think we looked a little bit gassed at times. They just kept hustling, hustling, and hustling, beating us to some balls.”
Golden State’s largest lead on Wednesday was one, which came early in the first quarter. Minnesota’s largest lead was 25. The Wolves led by 21 entering the fourth. However, they let the Warriors cut it to nine points with seven minutes left.
The Timberwolves committed 21 turnovers, translating to 26 points for the Warriors, who also pulled 18 offensive rebounds. Golden State cashed those offensive boards in for 27 points. Minnesota was only able to muster two second-chance points off six offensive rebounds.
Like they did early in the season, the Wolves were beating themselves. With Curry, the Warriors didn’t have the ammo to stick around in Game 5 unless Minnesota let them. It was something the Wolves struggled with all year – playing down to undermanned or downright lousy competition.
However, they found ways to win in the playoffs that they never could in the regular season.
“Tremendous loss for Golden State. Tremendous loss for the series,” Finch said regarding Curry’s injury. “I’m sure it would have been quite different had Steph been able to play, but our guys took care of business. That’s not something we’ve always done.”
Aside from Game 1, the Wolves were mainly in control against Golden State. They also dispatched the Los Angeles Lakers in five games in the first round. However, the Wolves have dominated when games have gone into clutch time. They never did that in the regular season.
Timberwolves' clutch stats in…
The regular season (46 games):
• 20-26 record
• 106.4 ORTG (20th league wide)
• 114.8 DRTG (24th)
• 12.7 assist ratio (24th)
The playoffs (4 games):
• 4-0 record
• 155.2 ORTG (2nd)
• 72.7 DRTG (1st)
• 26.7 assist ratio (1st)
— Charlie Walton (@CharlieWaltonMN) May 14, 2025
Wednesday’s game didn’t go into clutch time, but it took a 17-11 run midway through the fourth to keep Golden State a comfortable distance away. It wasn’t a clean game, but it was a performance in which the Wolves can take much satisfaction. They shot 62.8% from the floor, 41.9% from deep, and assisted on 36 of their 49 field goal makes. Six of the seven players that Finch played scored double digits. Edwards dropped a playoff career-high 12 assists.
More importantly, the win has Minnesota back in the Western Conference Finals, one win away from as far as the team reached last season.
“It sucks to end it without Steph, but they beat us,” Draymond Green said. “Injuries are a part of it. We’ve won championships when guys got hurt.”
Would the Wolves have sent Golden State home in five games had Curry not injured his hamstring in Game 1? Probably not. But the Wolves would not have even been in the second round in the first place had they not overcome the vices that locked them down earlier in the season. Curry’s injury altered the series, but it does not detract from what Minnesota has accomplished.
They are four wins away from their first Finals berth in franchise history. Tell that to a Wolves fan in November; they would have called you crazy.