Warriors claim they are not ‘desperate’ after wasting vintage ‘Playoff Jimmy’ performance

SAN FRANCISCO Facing a - deficit after dropping Championship of their second-round series against the Timberwolves on Saturday night the Warriors spoke with a tinge of regret as they made sense of what went wrong Jimmy Butler who flashed vintage Playoff Jimmy form by scoring points talked in a low voice as he looked at the box result that read Minnesota Golden State from the postgame podium Didn t get the shots we wished to get turned the ball over a sparse times didn t contest shots didn t take the three out of the battle and that was it Butler monotoned After being relatively quiet in Games and of this Western Conference semifinal series he had become the playoff hero the Warriors had been promised when they traded for Butler in February He fired up close to shots taking on the lead ballhandling role as Steph Curry was shackled to the sidelines with a left hamstring strain and doing everything he could to will the Warriors to win in minutes It was not enough Twenty-six shots shots next time it has to be in a win Butler remarked Disappointment pervaded the Warriors locker room but despair was nowhere to be determined There s no need to panic guard Gary Payton II explained the Bay Area News Group while nonchalantly tying his shoes at his locker We ll be alright As a unit with veteran leaders like Butler and Draymond Green the players seemed certain they could stay in the series despite Curry s injury We can compete without Steph Butler reported We re still as confident as ever Confident or not the loss still stung The Warriors overcame their -for- shooting from -point distance and led - at halftime in a competition where Curry s lack of shot creation was glaring After minutes the Warriors led - after Hield and the squad s shooters went -for- from long range in the third period An improbable series lead was there for the taking and the Warriors knew it We had the event in front of us the normally upbeat Hield noted somberly His mind wandered to a fourth quarter in which the Warriors led - with eight minutes remaining after Butler made a pair of free throws The lead disappeared in a - Minnesota run that saw Anthony Edwards tally five points including a big dunk that were two of the more emphatic of his game-high points Coach Steve Kerr rued his group s inability to grab loose balls something that has plagued the Warriors for a month An offensive rebound by veteran Mike Conley early in the fourth which resulted in a Naz Reid -pointer and kept the deficit to just five stood out in Kerr s mind I thought that was the sequence that really shifted the championship and the momentum Kerr stated Thirteen offensive boards for them points that Was a big factor in the fourth Green fouling out in the fourth quarter did not help the Warriors cause Two of his fouls came from replay reviews and the sixth while contesting a shot at the rim It was a laborious expansion during a trying week for the veteran forward who was the subject of racial abuse by two spectators in Minneapolis during Event The sixth one was a tough one Kerr disclosed That didn t feel great looking at the replay but it is what it is and they outplayed us in the fourth and they deserved to win The fourth-quarter collapse overshadowed what was a career night for -year-old forward Jonathan Kuminga who went from being out of the rotation to scoring points on just shots Whether Kuminga was driving for dunks making tough layups or burying -pointers the Wolves had no answer for the fourth-year forward who commented his ankle is starting to feel healthy The injury caused Kuminga to miss games in the middle of the season Related Articles Warriors shooting harkens back to We Believe era and not in a good way Curry-less Warriors squander big nights from Butler Kuminga in Championship loss Warriors Kerr credits Timberwolves for response to racially charged affair With Curry sidelined Warriors need Podziemski Moody to return to form How to watch Warriors-Timberwolves Meeting Kuminga credited Butler for helping him thrive even though Butler s presence was a big reason Kuminga s role was reduced It s kind of authentically easy Kuminga revealed It s just the same way as Steph you ve got another athlete with Jimmy and they are two different people but they attract so much attention you ve just got to be alert when they ve got the ball Kuminga and Hield were the only players who looked like they knew how to play with Butler on offense during Saturday s event The other five Warriors who played combined for just points on shots The Warriors will need another big battle from Kuminga and a bounce-back competition from -for- shooting Brandin Podziemski to even the series They have a day of rest to figure out what else requirements to go right Facing a workable - series deficit will not factor into that preparation I m not going to tell my guys to be desperate or any more urgent than anything Butler revealed You go out there and you play basketball and you hoop