The Warriors didn’t receive the surprise they needed to win Game 4 of their Western Conference semifinal series with the Timberwolves on Monday.
So now they’re going to need something much, much stronger.
Down 3-1 and heading to Minnesota for a close-out Game 5, the Dubs will need a miracle.
Specifically, one of the medical variety.
If the Warriors don’t have Steph Curry on the floor for Game 5 and beyond in this series, there’s no reason to think Golden State is going to win another game.
And even if Curry is back, the Dubs are probably not rattling off three straight wins to advance to the Western Conference Finals.
This team is done.
The half-empty arena with still minutes to play in Monday’s Game 4 said it all.
The Warriors didn’t show up to win a must-win playoff game.
Why would fans need to stick around for the full 48 minutes?
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The Warriors turned a two-point halftime lead into a 20-point deficit going into the fourth quarter.
So no, I don’t think the Dubs will be Team No. 14.
Meanwhile, no one should expect the Chase Center crowd to show up on Sunday for a Game 6. As the schedule currently reads, that contest will not prove necessary unless Warriors team doctor Rick Celebrini has done his finest work to date in returning Curry from a significant hamstring injury in a week.
Which is to suggest you shouldn’t hold your breath or bank on using that ticket.
The list of people to blame for Monday’s second-half catastrophe is long.
First, credit the Timberwolves. Their third quarter was a masterpiece — the kind of frame the Warriors used to put on unsuspecting, lesser teams.
If you had any questions about Anthony Edwards’ superstardom credentials, they were answered on Monday.
Former Warriors coach and NBA announcer Mark Jackson used to say, “Mama, there goes that man.” The only thing missing from Edwards’ performance Monday was that catchphrase on the broadcast.
He was magnificent. The Wolves were fantastic.
Meanwhile, the Warriors’ two remaining stars — Jimmy Butler and Draymond Green — were downright awful in Game 4.
Butler showed up to Chase Center looking tired. He played exactly that way. He was passive at best on Monday, shooting only nine times when he knew well that anything less than 20 shots on a night wouldn’t be enough for the Dubs.
Green suggested postgame that Butler was under the weather Monday.
He’s certainly injured, and the playoffs’ every-other-day schedule doesn’t help.
But Butler was simply not a factor in Game 4.
At least not in a good way. He was minus-27 in the second half.
“He wasn’t as aggressive tonight,” Warriors coach Steve Kerr said in a bid to win the regional Obvious Statements Contest.
Green, meanwhile, was a turnstile on defense.
A bad game from either Butler — the team’s offensive engine with Curry out — or Green — the team’s everyday defensive engine — would have been manageable.
For both to happen in the same game?
That’s downright insurmountable.
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Add in Brandin Podziemski’s all-time awful funk and a never-ending cavalcade of bizarre five-man units (how many different ways can Warriors coach Steve Kerr put together a one-shooter lineup?) and the Warriors didn’t stand chance of keeping up with Edwards, Julius Randle (31 points) and a Wolves team that found third, fourth, fifth, and sixth gear in the second half, and you have a series that shouldn’t be on much longer.
Seriously, what’s the formula for the Warriors in Game 5?
Edwards has solved the Dubs’ zone defense — their neutralizing look.
Furthermore, no one can stay in front of him on the perimeter, opening up his 3-point shot or at least making his dribble penetration easy.
Meanwhile, the Dubs spend offensive possessions passing the ball around until someone has to hoist a bad shot before the shot clock expires, finally answering the long-held philosophy question: Can you be so selfless that you are, in fact, selfish?
Here’s another big question — though this isn’t much of a thinker:
Do you really think that team is winning in Minneapolis?
Even with the Timberwolves almost certain to mess around in comical ways Wednesday (the Wolves closed with rotation players and somehow only won by seven points), there’s simply no reason to believe the Dubs can play competently enough to take full advantage.
That is, unless Curry is in the lineup, which — for the record — you should not expect.
I wouldn’t count on any of it, just like how the Warriors, in the biggest game of the year, couldn’t count on their on-court stars to consistently play like stars in this series.
Then again, if Buddy Hield is right and Curry is, in fact, “touched by an angel… touched by God,” the Warriors stand a chance of a miracle occurring.
Then, we’ll see if Curry can bring a team back from the dead.
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