Kurtenbach: Game 3 was the shorthanded Warriors’ best shot. Does this team have another surprise left in them?

Winning one battle just one of their second-round playoff series against the Timberwolves with superstar Steph Curry sidelined was perpetually going to be a formidable task for the Warriors And one can t help but wonder after the Dubs - loss if the band s season was effectively ended by tired legs and soft foul calls Did Golden State just blow its best shot to extend the series to six games and a manageable just manageable Curry return Related Articles Warriors claim they are not desperate after wasting vintage Playoff Jimmy performance Why Warriors shooting woes are exacerbated without Steph Curry Curry-less Warriors squander big nights from Butler Kuminga in Match loss Warriors Kerr credits Timberwolves for response to racially charged event With Curry sidelined Warriors need Podziemski Moody to return to form When Curry s not playing there s no room for error Jimmy Butler explained after Saturday s Match You can t make mistakes You can t turn the ball over You can t give back all of those things And then you ve got to take the right shots You ve got to move the ball the right way Because he s the one individual for sure on this unit and maybe in the league that can make sure you re never out of any match And yet the Warriors did all of those things in critical moments Worse yet they were doing so various things right before that Imagine if I had notified you before Battle that Butler was going to shoot the ball times amount points Jonathan Kuminga would add points with -of- shooting from beyond the arc The Warriors would hold Minnesota to percent shooting Minnesota would end the match with more turnovers than Golden State The Wolves did not control the offensive glass You would have presumed the Warriors would have won It was almost a perfect scenario for the Dubs So for that to lose the event is a gut punch of the highest order We have to put our big boy pants on and go out and compete at a high level and get this one on Monday Butler revealed Butler s event Saturday suggests it might not be a matter of either pants or willpower The Warriors had a five-point lead early in the fourth quarter on Saturday Playing through Butler on offense and into Draymond Green on defense the Dubs had turned the match into a low-volume high-efficiency only-the-truly-proficient-will-survive playoff basketball challenge Shorthanded and in the cases of selected Dubs overwhelmed Golden State was going to steal the championship they needed But when Butler goes -for- from the floor in the final frame including missing three shots at the hoop and Green picked up two fouls in a matter of seconds with under five minutes to play in the competition one via review and the second coming from a can t-call-that-there decision from referee Mitchell Ervin the Warriors were left floundering on both sides of the floor Golden State lost the final frame by nine and the match s critical moments minute five to remaining by five You can t win in the playoffs with only three-quarters of a contest Not when the margins are as tight as on Saturday Related Articles Warriors coach Kerr lauds Kuminga s Match mulls Butler s minutes load Warriors defense comes and goes with Draymond Green in loss to Timberwolves Warriors claim they are not desperate after wasting vintage Playoff Jimmy performance Why Warriors shooting woes are exacerbated without Steph Curry Curry-less Warriors squander big nights from Butler Kuminga in Championship loss It has been suggested that Butler was saving his force for Challenge Yet he didn t have enough to get through the full meeting Saturday When the Warriors needed him bulk his legs weren t there to make the shots needed to win How can anyone expect him to have a big Competition given the circumstances I can appreciate Butler s healing ritual of dominoes coffee and kids I don t drink coffee and my children have allowed me to find new levels of exhaustion but playing dominoes sounds fun but with due deference to his injury the output has not been steady this postseason His success is not an every-other-game circumstance but it s not far off And Challenge was an on event And if the Warriors don t win Competition there s next-to-zero chance they re winning three straight to claim the series with or without Curry It s absolutely too much to ask this association with all its inconsistencies to make such a comeback As such the stakes couldn t be higher for the Dubs ahead of Monday s meeting The season is unquestionably on the line but Butler is exhausted Green is lost on offense without Curry and lacking the foot speed to execute everything he wants on the defensive end without being subject to the whistle and the Warriors offense is now running the same kind of no-movement drive-and-kick-with-a-bigger-ball-handler stuff that the Lakers did in the first-round against Minnesota a five-game gentleman s sweep for the Timberwolves despite Minnesota s offensive ineptitude in the series This is dire stuff and all the Warriors can reasonably do is pray that Kuminga Brandin Podziemski and Buddy Hield step up or in the episode of Kuminga stay up and save the season Perhaps they can this postseason has been a steady series of surprises both good and bad The way Monday is shaping up they ll need a good surprise for Battle