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Happy Friday, everyone! Hope you have some fun weekend plans lined up. Let’s get right to it.
🏀 Good morning to all, but especially to …
THE MINNESOTA TIMBERWOLVES
The Timberwolves are right back in the thick of things, and best of all, their injury scare to Anthony Edwards was just that — only a scare. Minnesota knotted up its series with Golden State at one game apiece with a 117-93 win over the Stephen Curry-less Warriors.
Julius Randle was outstanding with 24 points, 11 assists and nine rebounds, and Edwards returned after a second-quarter ankle sprain to finish with 20 points. Nickeil Alexander-Walker also had 20 off the bench.Jaden McDaniels is simply awesome on both ends, and he finished with 16 points, three steals and three blocks. He joined Kevin Garnett as the only Timberwolves players to hit those latter two numbers in a playoff game.After shooting 5 for 29 (17%) from 3 in Game 1, Minnesota was 16 of 37 (43%) in Game 2.
With Curry (hamstring strain) sidelined, the Timberwolves feasted on Golden State’s offense, turning 20 turnovers into 22 points and holding Golden State to 9 for 32 (28%) shooting from 3. In a have-to-have-it game, Minnesota took care of business in impressive fashion.
Honorable mentions
🏀 And not such a good morning for …
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THE GOLDEN STATE WARRIORS
Well, that was ugly. It took the Warriors nearly five minutes to score their first points of the game, and for the most part, it didn’t get a whole lot better. Going in, one would have expected a big — or at least aggressive — Jimmy Butler performance. Instead, he took just 13 shots and…
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