Anthony Edwards poured in a game-high 36 points, Julius Randle had 24 as part of a triple-double, and the Minnesota Timberwolves wrested back home-court advantage in their second-round playoff series against the Golden State Warriors with a 102-97 triumph in San Francisco, California.
Game 4 in the Western Conference best-of-seven series is scheduled for Monday night in San Francisco, with the sixth-seeded Timberwolves leading 2-1.
Jimmy Butler III had a team-high 33 points on Saturday for seventh-seeded Golden State, which played without star guard Stephen Curry, out with a strained left hamstring.
The tightly contested game saw the Warriors clinging within 84-82 before two game-disqualifying fouls on defensive ace Draymond Green within 18 seconds inside the final five minutes.
The Timberwolves took control from there, getting a triple from Jaden McDaniels and a three-point play from Rudy Gobert, the latter creating a six-point cushion for the visitors with 2:05 to play.
“We’re making some shots, for sure,” Timberwolves coach Chris Finch said. “We’re getting stops. We were getting stops throughout the regular season. We’re just winning the possession battle in clutch time now. We’re just not — we’re not giving the ball back on cheap turnovers. We’re not giving up as many or any second-chance opportunities.”
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A 3-pointer by Edwards, his fifth of the game, all but clinched Minnesota’s second consecutive win with 1:19 to go.
Edwards’s 36 points were his second-most this postseason, topped only by a 43-point explosion in Game 4 against the Los Angeles Lakers in the first round. He hit 13 of his 28 shots on Saturday.
“The team defence was really good,” Warriors coach Steve Kerr said. “Held them to 102. That’s a pretty good number. But Randle and Edwards really both got going in the second half, and that was the key. We couldn’t quite contain them, especially in the fourth, and that was the difference.”
Randle complemented his 24 points with 10 rebounds, a game-high 12 assists and three steals for the Timberwolves, who outshot the hosts 43.9 percent to 43.2 percent in a defensive struggle.
“He’s playing with so much force and determination,” Finch said of Randle. “He’s going out there early and aggressive, and he’s exerting a tonne of energy on the defensive end with his body and his rebounding. He’s playing a complete game for us, no doubt.”
McDaniels added 15 points and Gobert had a game-high 13 rebounds for Minnesota, which went 2-1 on the road in its 4-1 first-round series win against the Lakers.
Butler’s 33 points on 12-for-26 shooting were his most since he had 35 for the Miami Heat in Game 1 of the Eastern Conference finals at Boston in 2023. He also found time for seven rebounds and a team-high seven assists.
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“Man, Jimmy was incredible,” Kerr said. “He really controlled the game for us and put us in a position to win, and we just couldn’t close it out. But he was brilliant all night.”
Jonathan Kuminga, pressed into increased playing time as the Warriors looked to fill the void of Curry’s regular scoring, backed Butler with a postseason career-high 30 points. He had totalled just 43 in Golden State’s first nine playoff games.
“JK [Jonathan Kuminga] played one of the best games of his life,” Kerr said. “It was fantastic to see. You can see how necessary he is in this matchup, especially without Steph [Curry].”
Buddy Hield shot 4-for-8 on 3-pointers to account for a majority of his 14 points for the Warriors, while Brandin Podziemski collected a team-high eight rebounds on a night when he shot 1-for-10.
Celtics bury Knicks in Game 3
In an earlier playoff game on Saturday, Jayson Tatum finished with 22 points, nine rebounds and seven assists, and the Boston Celtics pulled away for a 115-93 win over the host New York Knicks in Game 3 of their second-round Eastern Conference series.
Payton Pritchard scored a team-high 23 points off the bench for Boston, which cut the Knicks’ lead to 2-1 in the best-of-seven series. Jaylen Brown added 19 points, and Derrick White had 17.
Jalen Brunson scored 27 points on 9-for-21 shooting to lead the Knicks. Karl-Anthony Towns finished with 21 points and 15 rebounds.
After struggling to score in the first two games of the series, the Celtics found their rhythm on offence. Boston shot 48.2 percent (40 of 83) overall and 50 percent (20 of 40) from 3-point range, and New York shot 40 percent (32 of 80) from the field and 20 percent (5 of 25) from beyond the arc.
“They got some clean looks early, and they see it go in; that gives them confidence. Then it’s hard to shut them off,” said Knicks coach Tom Thibodeau. “We have to have greater awareness. We can’t allow missed shots to take away from [our] defensive tenacity. We’ve got to bounce back.”
Tatum made a basket to put Boston on top 112-89 with 2:40 remaining. He assisted on a 3-pointer by Al Horford on the next possession, and Celtics coach Joe Mazzulla rested his starters for the remainder of the game with the score out of reach.
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“This is the fun part. You don’t get into the journey for it to be easy,” said Mazzulla. “It’s been dark, but in a good way. You’ve just got to tap into your darkness, and that’s it.”
Game 4 in the best-of-seven series will be played in New York on Monday.