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Golden State Warriors Off To Franchise-Best Start After Dusting Off The Minnesota Timberwolves

By Daniel Benjamin
Published on: 16:51 PST, Nov 12, 2015

The Golden State Warriors are off to their best start ever after defeating the Minnesota Timberwolves 129-116 at the Target Center on Thursday night.

Golden State (10-0) set a franchise mark with their 10th straight victory to start the season, but it wasn’t easy as the Warriors held off a furious comeback by the Wolves, who were down as much as 21 points in the third quarter. Previously, the Warriors best start was 9-0 which was set back during the 1960-61 season when the team was located in Philadelphia, according to NBA.com.

Stephen Curry was once again fantastic. Curry, the NBA’s leading scorer at 31.9 points a game, poured in 46 points to go along with five rebounds and four assists. He made 15-of-25 shots from the field, including 8-of-15 on his three-point attempts. This is the third game Curry has topped the 40-point plateau and also knocked down eight triples.

Golden State got off to a sterling start, scoring the first 10 points of the game in less than two minutes. Draymond Green started things off by nailing a 15-foot jumper off of an assist from Curry. The quarter quickly turned into the Curry show as the reigning MVP scored nine of the Warriors next 11 points to give them a 13-2 advantage. Zach LaVine got Minnesota (4-4) on the board with a reverse layup at the 10:02 mark.

After Minnesota got within 24-16, Green threw a lob to Festus Ezeli to put Golden State up 26-16 with 5:20 left in the opening quarter.

The Warriors led 40-27 after one quarter as Curry put up 21 points on 6-of-9 shooting, including 4-of-5 from downtown. As a team, Golden State shot 60.0 percent (15-of-25) from the field though Minnesota wasn’t much worse at 52.2 percent (12-of-23).

Golden State continued its hot shooting in the second quarter, making 15-of-22 shots (68.2 percent) from the floor and scoring 36 points. However, Minnesota was able to get back into the game after being down as many as 18 by getting to the line and capitalizing on Golden State’s mistakes. The Wolves scored 10 points off of six Warriors turnovers, had seven second chance points and made 13-of-14 free throw attempts. Golden State led 75-63 at halftime – the 75 points is the most points scored in the first half in the league this season.

The Wolves continued their strong play at the start of the fourth quarter, getting within 102-97 on a three-point play by Gorgui Deng — Minnesota did most of its damage with Curry on the bench. Curry re-entered the game with Golden State leading 109-101 and promptly sank his seventh three-pointer of the contest.

Curry is on-pace for a career year. He is averaging a league-leading 33.3 points while shooting 53.2 percent from the field. The 27-year-old has also made 52 three-pointers and is shooting an astounding 47.3 percent from beyond the arc. The 21-points he put up in the first quarter is the fourth time he has tallied 20-points in a quarter, according to ESPN. Curry also has produced six-30 point games.

Green posted his first double-double of the season and nearly recorded his second-career triple-double, tallying 23 points to go along with 12 assists and eight assists. Klay Thompson (15 points), Harrison Barnes (14), and Ezeli (10) also reached double figures.

Andrew Wiggins led Minnesota with 19 points, while rookie Karl Anthony-Towns continued to look good, picking up his sixth double-double (17 points, 11 rebounds). LaVine added 13 points but it was the Wolves bench that did most of the damage. Minnesota got 61 points from its reserves as Shabazz Muhammed (16 points), Kevin Martin (15), Andre Miller (11), and Deng (11) scored in double-figures.

Golden State is 5-0 on the road for first time in history, and is the third-defending champion to start the season 10-0.

Ricky Rubio missed his second straight game with an ankle injury. Minnesota falls to 0-4 at home, which is its worst start since 1994 when they lost 10 straight.

[Photo courtesy of Golden State Warriors Twitter]

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Karl-Anthony Towns Draymond Green Minnesota Timberwolves NBA Stephen Curry Klay Thompson Andrew Wiggins
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