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The Golden State Warriors were in command of Game 1 of their second-round series against the Minnesota Timberwolves, but everything changed once Stephen Curry went out with a hamstring injury. While the Warriors were able to win Game 1 without Curry, they lost the next four as the Timberwolves advanced to the Western Conference Finals for a second straight year. This season now goes down as a major what-if scenario given Curry's injury, and Dubs owner Joe Lacob said pointedly after Wednesday's Game 5 loss that he feels they would've won with Steph in the lineup.
“Disappointing,” Lacob said as part of a 10-minute conversation with The Athletic. “I really hoped we could extend the series and I’m … I am pretty positive that if we had Steph, we’d have won this series,” Lacob said.
Slater noted that Lacob paused before firing off his take, so as not to totally “discredit” the Timberwolves. But given how Golden State looked in those early stages of Game 1 on the road, it's not a stretch to think they would've won if Curry never got hurt. Steve Kerr expressed a similar sentiment after Game 5, and the Warriors did go 23-7 with Curry and Jimmy Butler together in the lineup while beating the second-seeded Houston Rockets in the first round.
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But, again, we can play the what-if game all we want. What happened is Curry got hurt and the Warriors didn't have nearly enough to compete with a Timberwolves team that's playing really well, some sloppy turnovers notwithstanding. Don't forget, Minnesota smacked around the Los Angeles Lakers in five games as well, and that was with LeBron James and Luka Doncic playing the whole series.
“It’s in some ways kind of a win to get here, to get (to) the second round,” Lacob said. “Yeah, we lost four games to one. Not good. But to a team that is playing very well. They took the Lakers out four to one also with two of the greatest players in the world on their team. We didn’t have one of ours. So we can all sit here and make what-ifs, judgments, but I can’t be really upset with what happened, given that we just didn’t have our biggest force.”
It didn't help that Butler — who suffered his own injury against the Rockets — was apparently dealing with a mystery illness over the past few days, zapping his juice after a big Game 3 went for naught. But even if Butler went full “Playoff Jimmy” the whole series, Golden State was overmatched without Curry. The Warriors had their chance to steal Game 3 to at least give Curry a legit chance to return for Game 6, but they couldn't get it done. Golden State now heads into the offseason looking to improve the roster around the veteran core, hoping for another crack at it in the playoffs next season.
