The Reporter (Vacaville)

DON'T WRITE OFF DUBS

Golden State will have to fight for everything in season's final weeks, might be up for those battles

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Was the basketball good? Not particular­ly.

But Sunday's win was vital for the Warriors, and in that 109-104 victory over the Timberwolv­es, the Dubs showed something that is just as important as good execution: scrappines­s. The Warriors don't have anything close to their full coterie of stars, and they predictabl­y fell behind the Timberwolv­es by double digits to start the first and second halves. This game could easily have been a loss — it probably should have been a loss. But Klay Thompson refused to lose, and Donte DiVincenzo and Kevon Looney helped him.

They were scrappy, and that was enough to win.

Did the Warriors find a formula for sustained success Sunday? Hardly. But in games like Sunday's, where the Warriors are playing a Western Conference peer, sustainabi­lity does not matter.

We're in the crunch time of the season. It doesn't matter who is playing well, or who is playing at all — the Warriors need wins to make the playin tournament, much less the playoffs.

And credit to the Warriors, they felt that pressure after falling behind twice on Sunday and countered with energetic play. Sunday's Warriors might not have been able to raise their talent level, but they could manage their effort. They brought it, full bore, in the moments they needed it.

It was an unambiguou­sly encouragin­g sign in a season where such positives have proven sporadic and even a bit misleading.

And while the Dubs nearly gave away the game with a flurry of inexplicab­le turnovers in the final minute-plus — if not for a favorable foul call, they likely would have lost — the fact remains that a splitsquad unit raised its collective game to meet the moment. They found a way to win.

There's a reason the eminently mediocre 2022-23 Dubs (with and without Steph Curry) maintain shockingly low NBA championsh­ip odds.

The Warriors are by no means the favorite: They are currently No. 7 in the Western Conference with the seventhbes­t odds to win the NBA title.

Curry, Draymond Green and Andrew Wiggins (all missed Sunday's game) are a big part of that deference to the defending champions, but it goes deeper than that.

The pieces to win are on this Warriors team. But the codifying force is playing engaged, energetic basketball. Put a bit

of fight into the equation and it's hard to bet against the Dubs.

The Warriors eked out a win against a bad Minnesota team — the kind of squad that deserves nothing more than a play-in tournament exit. Sunday's win doesn't deserve a celebratio­n.

These Warriors are no underdogs.

But the team's effort deserves praise. Apply what we saw Sunday to the remainder of the games the Warriors play, and they won't stress about making the postseason. What a relief that would be.

And if this team can ever get healthy in the process, that energy — that scrappines­s — might just help those title odds get even shorter.

Kuminga's big chance

Draymond Green's knee

“setback” might end up setting back the Warriors' season.

But it is, unquestion­ably, an incredible opportunit­y for Jonathan Kuminga to play more meaningful minutes and show how much he has developed in his sophomore season.

It was anything but perfect — and he's no Green — but it's hard not to like what we saw Sunday.

Kuminga's athleticis­m is unmatched. His game has proven to be predictabl­e and rote at times, though.

That was not frequently the case against the Timberwolv­es.

It might have simply been the case of a good matchup, but Kuminga was playing with immediacy, and that allowed that unparallel­ed athleticis­m to shine.

When Kuminga plays in space — something his frontcourt pairing with Anthony Lamb helps with, per Kerr — and thinks

less, he does more for the Warriors.

The expectatio­n is that the Warriors will be counting on Kuminga to play big minutes for at least a few more games, if not more.

This could be a sneak preview of the Warriors' immediate future or a sign that Green needs to be re-signed.

And if Kuminga plays like he did Sunday — instinctua­l and incisive — there's a chance it's the former option.

Klay Day Part 2

There's a reason Klay Thompson hasn't lost a playoff series in close to a decade: The dude is a gamer. The Warriors were playing two two-way players and two guys on the minimum and Thompson still got it done.

Jordan Poole was nowhere to be found on Sunday. It was another concerning performanc­e.

But Thompson was simply sensationa­l.

I think he's enjoying the forced star-turn. His play as of late has ended any question relating to his health and the “kind of player he is, now”. That has to be satisfying.

I'm enjoying it, too. Is this a model to win a title? No. But the Warriors' last two games have been a wonderful reminder that there is a difference between great players and good players.

Great players show up when they are needed. It's not ideal that Game 6 Klay was needed for games against the Rockets and T'Wolves, but alas, he was, and he showed up. He always does. History will be far kinder to Thompson's career than the current media landscape, and that's a shame.

It shouldn't be hard to recognize one of the greatest players in NBA history, and yet Thompson still flies under the radar.

 ?? THEARON W. HENDERSON – GETTY IMAGES ?? The Warriors' Jonathan Kuminga dunks over Kyle Anderson for two of his 13points in Sunday's victory over the Timberwolv­es at Chase Center.
THEARON W. HENDERSON – GETTY IMAGES The Warriors' Jonathan Kuminga dunks over Kyle Anderson for two of his 13points in Sunday's victory over the Timberwolv­es at Chase Center.
 ?? NHAT V. MEYER — BAY AREA NEWS GROUP ?? The Golden State Warriors' Klay Thompson celebrates a basket by Donte DiVincenzo against the Minnesota Timberwolv­es in the fourth quarter at the Chase Center in San Francisco on Sunday.
NHAT V. MEYER — BAY AREA NEWS GROUP The Golden State Warriors' Klay Thompson celebrates a basket by Donte DiVincenzo against the Minnesota Timberwolv­es in the fourth quarter at the Chase Center in San Francisco on Sunday.
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