SAN FRANCISCO — After missing two weeks and five games with a quad injury, Golden State Warriors star Stephen Curry Needed just 32 minutes to score 39 points in his return on Friday night.
But Curry’s strong, productive reappearance hasn’t gotten the Warriors’ shaky season back on track. They lost to the A’s 127-120 minnesota timberwolves team missing Anthony EdwardsThey gave up 39 points in the fourth quarter at home to see their record fall to 13–13.
“Our defense let us down tonight,” Warriors coach Steve Kerr said.
Without Curry, the Warriors held four of their last five opponents under 100 points, and won three times. He entered Friday night with the third-best defensive rating in the NBA.
But draymond green Was away from the team this week due to personal reasons and al horford Remains out due to sciatica, leaving the small Warriors team particularly vulnerable internally. Rudy Gobert And julius randall Combined for 51 points and 23 rebounds.
“Draymond and Al understand how to make an impact, how to make a presence known,” Curry said. “But we didn’t have them. We had to figure out a way to make it happen. We didn’t have them.”
The biggest problem for the Warriors has been an inefficient attack. They are 22nd in the NBA in offensive rating. They have a lot of specific issues to solve, but the fresh and available curries are a big boost.
In his first game, Curry scored 10 points on six quick shots in his first eight-minute stint. The Warriors left Curry at the facility during their recent three-game road trip, believing that a weekend of treatment and then a Wednesday night test would get his conditioning back for Friday’s return.
“He looked great,” Kerr said. “Just the speed, the flow. I asked him how he was feeling after that first eight-minute run in the first quarter and he said, ‘I feel great.'”
Curry finished with 28 shot attempts in 32 minutes, and after the Warriors fell down by double digits in the fourth quarter, he pulled them back with three 3s and 14 fourth quarter points.
“Starting to feel normal again,” Curry said. “So personally it was a good first game to get my lungs back and feel like myself.”
But it was not a good night for his team. A win would have pulled the Warriors within a game and a half of the Timberwolves for sixth place in the West. The loss pushed them back three and a half games and lost another chance to generate momentum against a team without their best player.
