If someone needed a prefiguration of the reasons why the post-stheph curry era terrifies the Golden State Warriors, the minnesota star Timberwolves, Anthony Edwards, provided a Monday evening.
With the curry looking at the touch line, Edwards hunting in the center. Just before the buzzer at halftime, he torn the hearts of Warriors fans with a cross in a 30-foot depth ball which was strangely like a vintage curry 3. Then, he left the break with force, marking 16 points in the third quarter to push the Minnesota’s advance at 20. At the end of the night, Edwards had filled the box with the box with 30 points, Five twists and turns and four animators.
After the match, a winner of the Wolves of 117-110 which gave Minnesota a 3-1 lead in the series, Edwards entered section 17, near the Wolves Tunnel. He exchanged jokes with the legend of Oakland Gary Payton, gave his jersey to a lucky young fan, then striped in the locker rooms like a man who had just given him the act to the building.
“Well, Ant has started,” the Warriors coach Steve Kerr told journalists a few minutes later. “They continued to score and we couldn’t score.”
This was the case for last week, since Curry pulled his hamstrings halfway from the first quarter of the match 1 of the semi-finals of the West Conference. The Warriors won a 99-88 victory in this match, supported by the 13 quick points of Curry to start the competition before mounting a vintage Draymond Green performance and a Buddy Hield radiator in a timely manner. But if this game gave the Warriors a glimmer of hope that the team could overcome the absence of curry, the following three provided a reality control that gives thought.
Pressed in the duty of head, Jimmy Butler had trouble maintaining the warriors afloat while fighting against a pelvic injury; He only draws 44% in the series, far from the standard “Playoff Jimmy” which he set throughout his career. Green, who was overlamed while keeping bigger players in the front area, produced more technical faults than two -digit outputs in the playoffs. Brandin Podziemski only reached four of his last 24 shots, and Moses Moody did not record his first goal on the field of the series to the brand 1:53 in the fourth quarter of the match 4.
This is what it looks like when the sun falls from the solar system. During most of Curry’s career, the Warriors had trouble winning the minutes when he is on the bench, and even less unavailable. The entire Golden State system is designed to enjoy its shooting and tireless movement. Now, the Warriors must get out of a hole of 3-1 without their principle of central organization – the driving force behind four championships and this last push in the second round of the playoffs. To look at this series is to wonder: what are the warriors without curry?
This question is part of the reason why Golden State exchanged for Butler, a Mercurial star but a reliable artist in the playoffs. The beauty of Butler’s adaptation in Golden State lies in his double ability to play both Steph and without him. During the regular season, Butler was able to support the Warriors when Curry struck the bench and understand innate how to play actions that Green and Curry have been working for more than a decade. But there is a big difference between keeping the machine walking while Curry takes a four -minute break and leading this machine in front of an elite defense in the playoffs.
“It is difficult to play without this man,” said Butler about Curry after three districts without step in match 1. Butler and the rest of the Golden State support distribution had to go up the call sheet – and adapt to an offense centered on the butler on the fly.
“We know that we do not get the same gravity,” said Kevon Looney. “Jimmy chooses his places where he really wants to run, or he wants to slow down. He is an excellent game manager, that’s why it is very different. Steph is always in chaos, always at the opening where we launch and we run and run, but with Jimmy, it’s more methodical.”
To help alleviate the absence of curry, Kerr turned to Jonathan Kuminga, the 22 -year -old Warriors puzzles that barely played during the team of seven games of the team against Houston. Last season, the old lottery choice has an average of a career summit of 16.1 points, as well as five rebounds and two assists. Kuminga has many attributes that the NBA teams want in a modern wing: he can run the ground, knife in painting and keep several positions. But an ankle injury in January sidelined him, and when he returned to the ground, Golden State had exchanged for Butler, whose redundancy with Kuminga reduced the role and minutes of the latter.
Despite his talent, Kuminga’s propensity to seek his shot to the detriment of the flow of the Golden State offensive thwarted coaches. During an end -of -season match against the Blazers, team sources say that Kerr was exasperated after several cases in which Kuminga watched Curry to create his own offense. Kuminga then received DNPS during the final of the regular Warriors season against the Clippers, then again in their game game against the Grizzlies. At the start of the playoffs, many in the organization wondered if Kuminga, who is eligible for an extension, had played his last match as a warrior.
But all of a sudden, Kuminga finds himself in the center of the chances of the Golden State qualifying season. Against the Wolves of Match 3, thin on the bodies and desperately for a spark, Kerr turned to Kuminga to provide it-and the fourth year wing responded powerfully, ending with 30 points and six rebounds in the best post-season performance of his career, completing the Triple-Double de Butler. “It took me a while to understand how to play with him,” Kuminga told me after this match. “When he attacks, just go out of the way. If you don’t have open lay-ups, get out of the way.”
During the last three Warriors games, Kuminga has an average of 24 points. His speed and ability to get started for the buckets helped Golden State remain competitive as Curry recovers.
“You can’t just give up when you’re not in the game,” Kuminga told me. “Either you are wrong, or you don’t get your way.” This is the only way, it continues to improve.
“Continue to stay ready,” he continued, “and continue to stay ready.”
Throughout his career, Kuminga had to sail into contradictory opinions on his game within the Warriors organization. On the one hand, it has long been considered a favorite of the team’s co-execution of the team, Joe Lacob, who considered him the kind of talent to transport the warriors to the post-crurit era. On the other, he could not gain the coherent confidence of the coaches staff, which led to his entry and the exit of the rotation.
Over the years, the name of Kuminga has appeared in many commercial rumors while the Warriors have sought to modernize the talent around Steph, but Lacob has chosen not to treat the wing.
The return to the relevance of Kuminga in the Wolves series embodies the challenge that the Warriors are confronted when it comes to maximizing what remains of Curry’s career while throwing a base for everything that will happen. With Curry in the programming, Kuminga is struggling to integrate into the concept of the Warriors team, to the point of being almost unplayable. Without Steph, it was a lifestyle for the Warriors and offered an overview of what it can offer in a different context.
I ask Kuminga what it is to consider being the face of the Warriors. “That I don’t know,” he says. “I don’t know what the future will look like, but I’m just trying to cancel the noise and focus on improvement.
If it’s going to be there, it’s going to be there. If it will not be there, someone at least, it will be there for someone else. It is not my main objective. My main goal is to continue to look up.
Since the last title of Golden State, the Warriors have tried to build a team that accentuates Steph, but has also been able to wear it if necessary. A few weeks before the deadline for trade, I asked Curry what he would like to see from the front office.
“I want to win, I want to be competitive,” he replied. “This does not mean that you are going to be the favorite of the odds to win a championship; you just want to have a situation where you can be in the conversation. This is what we all want, that’s what we all deserve.”
Shortly after, the front office delivered Butler and the Warriors started the conversation. Unfortunately, Curry’s injury eliminated the train train and gave another recall of the check clock for the 37 -year -old superstar. Curry could come back from its tension to the hamstrings if the Warriors can push the series to six or seven games, but anyway, the door will finally close on the greatest race in the history of the franchise.
Until then, the front office will continue to travel the league for players who can work with Steph. Sources say that Milwaukee Bucks star Giannis Antetokounmpo made a surprise visit to Curry’s party in a bar on the Chase Center hall on the eve of the February stars game, giving some the impression that it would be open to a curry day with Curry. Antetokounmpo would be open to taking into account a Milwaukee move, but the Golden State potential package is pale compared to those of teams such as the Rockets, Spurs and even the earnings of the lottery. Instead, the Warriors may have to continue to continue margins agreements. The Warriors have something with the Curry-Butler-Draymond trio, but they need an infusion of young people and talents around them. Even Kuminga is not expected.
But first, the Warriors hope to extend the series long enough for their Batman to be able to make a return. “To be honest with you, not good,” said Buddy Hield in Curry’s mood after match 3. “I mean, he was good, but he just knows that we should be up 3-0.”
Before match 5, the Warriors will need another reinvention in its absence. They will have to find new ways of playing and other ways of winning – even if they are not as pretty as a curry 3 with high arc. “I have to find all the cowardly balls and give this type of tone,” said Green after match 4. “Then defensively, I have to be really good.”
“You abandon 117 points without Steph probably losing you,” he continued, “because the probability that we are going to score 117 points without him is not so high. So, everyone must commit to doing so on the defensive, everyone being on the chain. This is how we give ourselves a chance.”
