Warriors at Timberwolves
The Golden State Warriors are off to a historically great start and will try to break the franchise record for consecutive wins to begin a season when they visit the Minnesota Timberwolves for the second night of a back-to-back on Thursday. The club matched the 1960-61 Philadelphia Warriors by moving to 9-0 with a win at Memphis on Wednesday.
Golden State endured its lowest scoring performance of the young season at Memphis on Wednesday but locked down on the other end, holding the Grizzlies to 34.3 percent from the field in the 100-84 triumph. Stephen Curry scored 17 of his 28 points in the third quarter in the win and became the first Warriors player since Latrell Sprewell in 1994-95 to score 20 or more points in each of the first nine games. The Timberwolves are still looking for their first home win (0-3) after dropping a 104-95 decision to the Charlotte Hornets on Tuesday. Rookie center Karl-Anthony Towns posted his fifth double-double in seven games but the rest of the young roster had difficulty compensating for injures to point guard Ricky Rubio (knee) and Andrew Wiggins (knee).
TV: 8 p.m. ET, TNT, CSN Bay Area (Golden State)
ABOUT THE WARRIORS (9-0): Curry is making an early push for a second straight MVP award but is getting plenty of help from Harrison Barnes, who went 7-of-11 from the field on Wednesday. Barnes failed to come to an agreement with the team on a long-term contract extension before the deadline but is proving his worth by shooting 50 percent or better from the field in six of the first nine games. Barnes averaged 9.8 points in the first four games but has boosted that number to 16.4 over the last five.
ABOUT THE TIMBERWOLVES (4-3): While Towns has gotten off to a tremendous start, fellow 2015 first-round pick Tyrus Jones is having trouble making his way into the rotation. Jones made his debut on Tuesday with Rubio injured and managed one point on 0-of-4 shooting in 13 minutes. “I feel like it went alright,” Jones told reporters. “Obviously there’s things you can improve on. First game jitters, we could play in a million preseason games, but that first game everything seems sped up and you’re moving at 100 mph.”
BUZZER BEATERS
1. The Warriors took all four meetings last season and have won five straight in the series.
2. Wiggins and Rubio are both considered probable to return to the lineup on Thursday.
3. Curry became the 10th player in franchise history to score at least 9,000 points in Wednesday’s win.