Towns helps to curtail slide
Butler recuperates from right knee surgery, the Wolves needed this win in the worst way in the thick of a daunting stretch of their schedule.
Towns made his presence felt when it mattered most, swishing a 3-pointer with 5:54 left to give the Wolves a 99-92 edge for their largest lead since early in the second quarter. He had 14 points in the fourth period alone, knocking down a floater from the lane with 2:18 to go, a fadeaway with 1:08 remaining and then a layup follow of his own miss with 37.5 seconds left to put the game away. He held out his long arms and cupped his hands to encourage the crowd as the last seconds ticked off the clock.
Klay Thompson had 21 points for the Warriors, but he went 3-for-12 from 3-point range. Draymond Green added 10 points, eight rebounds and seven assists, but he had trouble defending Towns down low. Zaza Pachulia pitched in 16 points and 11 rebounds, but without catalyst Curry the Warriors weren’t the same.
The Wolves displayed some of their sharpest ball movement since Butler went down, fueling an early lead that grew as high as 11 points late in the first quarter. Coach Tom Thibodeau then initiated Derrick Rose’s debut in an extra-small lineup next to Tyus Jones and Jamal Crawford and, coincidentally or not, the Warriors immediately took control.
Over the 6:48 stretch Rose was in the game as the shooting guard, the Wolves were outscored 27-10. After losing the ball on a drive to the lane that led to a fast break for Warriors, Rose lost track of Shaun Livingston and gave up an uncontested dunk on the other end before Thibodeau called a timeout with the Wolves trailing 44-38.
Durant and Green each knocked down a pair of 3-pointers in the second quarter, and, thanks in part to an 18-4 first-half edge in fast-break points, the Warriors built a lead as big as 57-45.