Even after this loss, the Timberwolves deserve some credit.
On the latter end of a back-to-back, without their best player, on the road, all against one of the best teams in the history of the sport and they never let the game completely slip away.
The Golden State Warriors, the basketball embodiment of a mathematical outlier, won this game, but the Jimmy Butler-less Timberwolves kept it fairly interesting.
Thursday’s eventual loss to the Warriors felt inevitable to some, but clearly never got to that point for the Wolves themselves.
It’s the second game without Butler where they’ve faced a top-three team in either conference. And while the first occasion – last week against Toronto – resulted in a win, this one felt successful in its own way as well.
The Warriors shot 57 percent from 3-point land Thursday, including an absurd 18 of 27 barrage from deep from their trio of Stephen Curry, Klay Thompson and Kevin Durant.
When the Warriors get as hot as they got Thursday, no team in the NBA can beat them. When you try to beat them with your offense – sort of like Minnesota’s effort in the first half – Golden State does it better. When you try to play slowly and defensive-minded, the Warriors’ sixth-ranked defense can do that, too.
All the while, they’ll probably still score a whole bunch on you.
But the Wolves still managed to hang around on Thursday. Despite only hitting 6 of 20 3-pointers, they got excellent production from Karl-Anthony Towns in the starting lineup, and Jamal Crawford off the bench.
They started the game trying to score with their opponent. By halftime, it was clear they could not. In the second half, they started clamping down defensively, all while pushing the pace on offense, and managed to get the deficit down to six points at one point in the fourth quarter.
It’s extremely hard – impossible, even – to shut down a team like Golden State, but the Wolves had some moments of defensive brilliance in parts of that final quarter. Had the Warriors just missed a couple of those shots they always make, it could have been a game.
Ultimately, the Warriors won because they can start up that 3-point clinic whenever they want. They did that again Thursday, and couldn’t miss.
But even looking past the “moral victory” aspect of Thursday’s loss, looking back at the time without Butler is an important exercise, even if it means looking back with even a sliver of fondness at a loss.
Over the last four games, the Wolves have gone 2-2 without Butler. This is important because the last time he was out, the Wolves lost a pair of games in a fashion that brought into question the complexion of the rest of the team.
It was a pair of 20-plus point defeats to Indiana and Detroit, far worse teams than Golden State and even a fully healthy Minnesota.
With that in mind, it’s hard to look at the 13-point loss to Golden State with as much frustration.
And with the optimism that Butler will indeed return on Saturday when the Wolves return to Minneapolis, it’s hard to look at a 2-2 record in the time he was out with any level of frustration, either. They picked up one win they weren’t supposed to (Toronto), grabbed another tough one (Los Angeles Clippers), then lost two in a row to a pair of hot teams that can bury you with 3-pointers (Portland and Golden State).
It’s difficult to fully gauge the value of a player, especially when the results are as sporadic as they’ve been in Butler’s absence, but a couple things are clear:
1. Butler is unequivocally valuable to the Minnesota Timberwolves.
2. Towns, Wiggins and the supporting cast as a whole, have improved immensely at playing with him gone.
If the Wolves want a chance at making any sort of noise in the playoffs, they will obviously need Butler healthy and playing his MVP-level basketball.
In the meantime, it’s good to know the guys are learning to get it done for themselves. They deserve some credit.
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