SAN FRANCISCO – Anthony Edwards' shot wasn't falling on Thursday night from three-point range. Neither was anyone else's on the Timberwolves.
That's an easy recipe for a loss against any NBA team, especially against a Golden State team that now has both Stephen Curry and Klay Thompson on the floor.
The Wolves hung around thanks to a strong night from Karl-Anthony Towns, but didn't have enough firepower to overcome the Warriors in a 124-115 loss.
The Wolves shot just 10 of 44 from three-point range (23%) while the Warriors shot 58% behind 29 points from Curry and 23 from Thompson.
"Not just, but I think we shot bad as a team from three. Didn't we?" Edwards said. "So it's all good. It happens. We gonna have nights like this. Play tomorrow. Nothing to be worried about."
Edwards has confidence "through the roof" on his shot, he said, but two nights after posting 40 against Portland, Edwards was off through three quarters.
He was just 1 of 8 from the field and finished 2 of 11 from three-point range. He gave the Wolves a momentary burst in the fourth when he attacked the basket more often and went 7 of 10. The Wolves cut a 16-point Warriors lead to 109-104 with just over five minutes to play, but Curry and Thompson responded with threes. The Wolves responded with blanks. Their bench didn't hit a three, with Malik Beasley the foreman of the brick-laying brigade at 0-for-8.
Towns led the Wolves with 31 points as he was the only constant on offense all night, a night D'Angelo Russell left early because of a left shin contusion. Coach Chris Finch didn't have a definitive update on Russell after the game.
Edwards only turned it on the fourth.
"My shot wasn't falling," Edwards said. "I wasn't going to stop shooting it, but I was trying to get to the rim as much as possible."
A night like Thursday is a part of Edwards' growth, Finch said.
"Just because you played last game at a certain style doesn't mean tonight is going to be played in the same way," Finch said. "I thought he settled a lot early on. As you saw, when we did, or he did, or anybody did attack them, we got to the rim pretty well, pretty easily. He in particular waited too long to do that."
That's because the Warriors were humming in the third quarter while Edwards was still languishing. Golden State outscored the Wolves 38-20 after the Wolves had a four-point halftime lead.
BOXSCORE: Golden State 124, Wolves 115
The Wolves built that lead on the back of Towns, who took advantage of one-on-one coverage to post 23 in the first half. The Warriors started sending double and triple teams after Towns, and the offense crumbled because nobody could hit an open look.
"Sometimes that happens, you just go cold," Finch said. "On the other end, they're a really hard team to guard and they keep making you guard all the way through the shot clock. We had a lot of breakdowns on off-ball stuff that hurt us, that put us under pressure to try to continue to score with them. That was the game."
Newly-minted All-Star Andrew Wiggins didn't have a splashy game, as he tends to do against teams that have slighted him, but he had 19 points on 7 of 13 shooting following the All-Star announcement.
"It was mind blowing …" Wiggins said. "I have been putting in a lot of work and have found a home here. Hopefully I can keep this going and this is not the last one."
Towns was happy for his former teammate.
"I think it's beautiful …" Towns said. "We went to wars together out there. We prepared for these games. There's a lot of blood, sweat and tears we put into this game for each other. I just want to see him see the fruits of his labor and I'm glad he's able to see that today."
There's no rest for the Wolves. Another game against a top Western Conference opponent in Phoenix awaits Friday. They'll need to find their shot along the way.
![Naz Reid (11) of the Minnesota Timberwolves Wednesday, March 27, 2024, at Target Center in Minneapolis, Minn. ] CARLOS GONZALEZ • carlos.gonzalez@](https://arc.stimg.co/startribunemedia/TGYNEKQCYNH5VEPCXSJODRMDDM.jpg?w=75&h=75&fit=crop&crop=faces)
