What was gearing up to be a promising 2025 National Basketball Association (NBA) postseason run for Grand Bahamian sharpshooter Chavano ‘Buddy’ Hield and the Golden State Warriors, came to an anticlimactic finish in game five of the Western Conference semifinals on Wednesday night.
The Warriors, who played without the services of Stephen Curry for the fourth straight outing, were eliminated from the playoffs with a 121-110 loss to the Minnesota Timberwolves at the Target Center in Minneapolis, Minnesota.
Minnesota won the series 4-1 to advance to the NBA Western Conference Finals for the second consecutive season.
Hield got off to a hot start in game one of the conference semifinals, but he cooled off the rest of the way. On Wednesday night, he scored eight points, pulled down four rebounds and picked up two steals, but had a team-high four turnovers in 30 minutes of play.
He struggled from the field, shooting 2-for-9, but made all four of his attempts at the charity stripe.
It was just the 32-year-old veteran’s second postseason appearance of his nine-year NBA career.
He played all 82 games during the NBA regular season, averaging 11.1 points and 3.2 rebounds per game while shooting 41.7 percent on field goals and 37 percent from deep.
During his second consecutive postseason run, Hield dropped in 12.5 points and 3.5 rebounds per game. He shot 41.6 percent from the field and was 42.9 percent from behind the arc.
Hield had his most memorable moment of the postseason in the Warriors’ ‘do-or-die’ game seven against the second-seeded Houston Rockets, and the opening game of round two against the Timberwolves.
The Grand Bahamian three-point specialist torched the Rockets for a playoff career-high 33 points, and added three rebounds and two blocks while knocking down a historic 9-for-11 buckets from long range in the elimination game. He made history by tying the NBA record for the most three-pointers in a game seven.
If that was not enough, he followed up the hot game seven performance with another big night in the Warriors’ 99-88 victory over the Timberwolves in game one of the conference semifinals.
After having just two points at halftime, Hield erupted for a game-high 24 points, and added eight rebounds and three assists.
However, the Warriors were unable to keep up with the Wolves after losing Curry to a grade one hamstring strain in game one, as he was out for the remainder of the series.
The Warriors trailed by seven, 30-23, after the first period of play in game five. Hield scored at the 5:56 mark of the second quarter to shave the deficit down to just three, 41-38.
The Timberwolves closed out the first half with an unanswered 7-0 scoring run for a 62-57 cushion at the intermission, and they never looked back.
The home team led by as much as 25 points at one point, but the Warriors were able to trim the double-digit advantage to just nine, 99-90, in the fourth period. Nonetheless, the game and series was already a foregone conclusion at that juncture.
Warriors’ guard Brandin Podziemski dropped in a team-high 28 points, and added six rebounds and four assists on 58 percent shooting.
Warriors’ forward Jonathan Kuminga, who rarely logged minutes in round one, led Golden State’s bench unit in scoring with 26 points, and he added three rebounds and two steals in 32 minutes of play.
Jimmy Butler pitched in 17 points, six boards, six dimes and three steals in 42 minutes of play. He shot 4-for-11 on his field goals and went 0-for-3 from three-point territory.
All five Timberwolves starters hit double digits in the elimination game. Forward Julius Randle produced a game-high 29 points, and added eight rebounds and five assists in 43 minutes.
The Timberwolves had the hot hand in game five, connecting on 62.8 percent of their field goals and were 41.9 percent from three-point range. They held the Warriors to just 43.3 percent shooting on field goals, and they were 28.2 percent from deep.
Hield and the Warriors will have to go back to the drawing board for next season, while the Timberwolves will move on to the NBA’s Western Conference Finals.