Minnesota
Timberwolves-Warriors: 5 takeaways from Minnesota’s bounce-back Game 2
Anthony Edwards battles through injury, Julius Randle posts a double-double and Minnesota rolls to a 117-93 Game 2 victory.
MINNEAPOLIS – Never mind whatever it is that’s going on with zany road-team advantage over in the Eastern Conference. It was left to Oklahoma City first, then the Minnesota Timberwolves to impose some order out West on what began in this round as homecourt chaos.
The Wolves’ 117-93 victory over Golden State Thursday at Target Center wasn’t as bloated as what the Thunder did to Denver a night earlier. But it achieved the same thing, evening the conference semifinals series at 1-1 as the series switched cities.
Actually, Minnesota’s situation was a little more dire than OKC’s. Had the Wolves failed to beat the Warriors with Stephen Curry – after losing Game 1 despite a hamstring injury prematurely ending Curry’s night – even diehard fans might have winced at what likely would have come.
But that scenario (perhaps an updated version of former Wolf Jimmy Butler coming into the gym and punking the franchise again the way he notoriously did in 2018) did not happen.
Here are five takeaways from the game Minnesota didn’t dare lose, as the series shifts to San Francisco beginning with Game 3 on Saturday (8:30 p.m. ET, ABC).
1. Wolves felt the urgency and responded
Everything has been fast-tracked in this series. First, the opposing coaches began lobbying the officials for calls after just one game. And Minnesota already was feeling must-win urgency in Game 2.
To their credit, the Wolves met the challenge. They scored the game’s first 13 points, led 20-5 deep in the opening quarter and, by that time, had held Golden State to 2-for-12 shooting (1-for-8 on 3s) and even 0-for-2 from the foul line.
Not having Curry on the court for a defense is like not having vegetables on your plate when you’re 12.
The Wolves went wire-to-wire with the lead, pumping it to 22 in the second quarter and 25 near the end. Julius Randle was their pillar, with 24 points, seven rebounds and 11 assists. Jaden McDaniels was a two-way star, helping pester Butler into just 17 points on a night the Warriors needed way more from the “Playoff” guy. McDaniels scored 16 points himself and added three steals and three blocks.
The Wolves sagged in the third quarter, getting sloppy with the ball as their lead got chiseled to 62-55 at 6:57. But a pair of 3-pointers and the Warriors’ intermittent offense pushed the margin back into double figures.
2. Kerr throws players at wall, 2 of ’em stick
Losing Curry is like snagging a fancy sweater – things can unravel fast. He is the hub and the focus of Golden State’s offense, a player whose standard rest within games is challenging enough to cover for. Losing him for long stretches, whole games or, in this case, for at least a week to his hamstring injury requires serious triage.
“Part of the game plan coming in was to play a lot of people and we did,” coach Steve Kerr said. “We have to figure out what we’re going to be able to do in this series without Steph. We gave a lot of people a lot of chances and some guys really stepped up.”
Stephen Curry’s hamstring injury has caused cascading effects on the Warriors rotation, and the Wolves take advantage in Game 2.
Two in particular: Jonathan Kuminga and Trayce Jackson-Davis. Jackson-Davis is a deep reserve big man who hit all six of shots, clogged the middle defensively and scored 15 points. Kuminga, 22, is a thoroughbred athlete and long seen as part of Golden State’s future. Wrapping his fourth NBA season, he fell out of the rotation in April, a negative heading into restricted free agency. Kuminga scored a team-high 18 off the bench.
“We’ve got to figure out rotations and who we start, but they’re going to be a part of it,” Kerr said after his personnel experiment. “We’ve got to find some better ways to score.”
3. Edwards takes licking, keeps ticking
For several uneasy minutes to close the first half, it looked this might turn into a series of chess – as in, key pieces taken off the board for both sides. Midway through the second quarter, Edwards hit the floor and had his left ankle stepped on by Golden State’s Jackson-Davis.
As the action shifted to the other end, Edwards stayed down. Coach Chris Finch called a timeout and his star shooting guard had to be helped to the locker room, where he stayed through halftime.
“This one I was really worried about,” said Finch, when asked about Edwards’ knack of bouncing back from injuries within games. “I was planning on not seeing him for the rest of the game, to be honest with you.”
Edwards did come back, though. He looked shaky in the third, but scored 10 in the fourth. It wasn’t the showtime folks have been expecting, but he was moving all right. He has 48 hours for treatment before Game 3 and, remember, he’s a fast-healing 23-year-old.
“One thing about Ant is he’s not gonna sit out,” teammate Nickeil Alexander-Walker said. “He’s got to be damn near dead.”
4. Draymond infractions inch toward danger zone
Warriors center Draymond Green has positioned himself on the cusp of potential suspension, picking up yet another technical foul with 8:46 to play in the second quarter.
Green had the ball, with Minnesota’s Naz Reid guarding him from behind, when Reid reached and fouled. Green flailed his arms in a way that banged Reid in the head.
Referee’s verdict: Foul on Reid, dead-ball technical on Green. At which point, Green went ballistic. But the game moved on, and Green now sits within two technical-foul points of a 1-game exile.
“He’s going to have to be careful now. We need him,” Kerr said.
5. Minnesota regresses from mean history
The Wolves had set a new NBA low for 3-point accuracy after Game 1. Combined with their 7-for-47 work in the clincher over the Lakers last week, Minnesota’s 5-for-29 in Game 1 Tuesday set an NBA low for consecutive playoff performances: 12-for-76, just 15.7%.
This time, with better shot selection and floor spacing, they took 37 and hit 16, a robust 43.2%. At 32.1% for the postseason, they still have work to do to approach their 37.7% accuracy of the regular season, which ranked fourth.
* * *
Steve Aschburner has written about the NBA since 1980. You can e-mail him here, find his archive here and follow him on X.
The views on this page do not necessarily reflect the views of the NBA, its clubs or Warner Bros. Discovery.
Minnesota
Giordano’s deep dish pizza bringing second location to Minnesota
Giordano’s, the famous pizzeria known for their deep-dish style Chicago pizza, is opening a second location in Minnesota at the Mall of America.
The pizza chain also has a location in Richfield, and previously had a location some years ago in Minneapolis in Uptown.
The grand opening of the Mall of America location will be on Thursday, July 16. The restaurant there will be unique, with the restaurant’s first self-service kiosk ordering. It will also have a grab-and-go area and a normal seated restaurant experience.
The Chicago deep-dish chain has been around since 1974, with the vast majority of locations in the Chicagoland area. They have 60 restaurants in nine states and are currently expanding nationwide.
Minnesota
Man accused of attacking woman in Midwest Bank parking lot at gunpoint
DETROIT LAKES, Minn. — A Minnesota man now being held by ICE in Texas is accused of pulling a gun on a woman in a bank parking lot in Detroit Lakes on June 12.
Jose Gregorio Boller Pena, 39, of rural St. Augusta, has been charged in Becker County District Court with felony second-degree assault with a dangerous weapon and felony threats of violence.
Nathan Bowe / Detroit Lakes Tribune
According to court records, shortly after noon on Friday, June 12, Boller Pena is accused of surprising a woman in her car on her lunch break in the back of the Midwest Bank parking lot.
The woman told a Detroit Lakes police officer that she had been sitting and scrolling through her phone. She heard rustling coming from the woods behind her vehicle and then saw someone standing at her car door. She added that the masked man pulled her car door open further.
She began screaming, and the man covered her mouth with his left hand. She looked down and saw that the man was holding a handgun pointed at her with his right hand, near his waist level, according to court records.
The man took her cellphone from her hand and threw it in the backseat. The man was speaking, but the woman could not understand what he was saying. He was gesturing for her to move over to the front passenger seat. She continued to scream, and a bank employee came out on lunch break and heard her, according to court records.
The suspect then fled southwest into the woods that border the Pelican River. The bank employee immediately went back inside and called 911, according to the criminal complaint.
When a police officer arrived on scene and met with the woman, she was visibly upset and crying. The woman said the attacker had been wearing all black clothes, a black “ski-mask thing,” and black or gray work gloves with rubber grips. She said the mask was over the man’s head and that he was also wearing sunglasses, that the gun was held in the man’s right hand and was pointed at her, and that the man had something similar to a duffel bag with him.
According to the criminal complaint, dispatch notified officers that the manager of Pelican River Apartments near the bank had reported a suspicious vehicle in their parking lot shortly before the time of the assault.
Video surveillance confirmed that a gray 2011 Mazda 3 sedan was in the northwest corner of the apartment lot, according to the complaint. In the video, a shadowy figure can be seen walking from the Mazda into the woods at about 11:20 a.m., according to the complaint. The Mazda is then seen leaving the parking lot at approximately 12:16 p.m.
The Mazda was found in Detroit Lakes through the Flock license plate reading camera system, and the Mazda plate number was noted on the day of the attack. The car drove into Detroit Lakes on Highway 10 East at approximately 10:13 a.m. and left town the same way at 12:20 p.m., according to court records.
Police next discovered that the Mazda had been at the Detroit Lakes Walmart on May 15, May 31 and June 5. Surveillance footage of the car and driver was compared to a photograph of the registered owner of the Mazda. It was later discovered that the car’s owner had been deported from the United States in May.
A Detroit Lakes police investigator then reviewed the owner’s known associates and noted that one worked on a large local dairy farm.
The owner of the dairy farm, identified in court documents as “C.S.,” told the investigator that one of his employees, a “Jose Boller” (later identified as Boller Pena) had recently quit work on June 10, two days before the attack.
The dairy farm owner told police that Boller Pena was from Venezuela and had a sick child back home, and that he said he was going back home to Venezuela to be with his family. He had said he would stay and work until June 14, but had left before that.
The dairy farm owner provided a police investigator with photos, a phone number and other details, according to the criminal complaint. Investigators discovered that same phone had been used to contact a local licensed gun broker, who happens to be married to a Detroit Lakes police officer.
The firearms dealer had received text messages on June 5 from Boller Pena’s phone number indicating that the individual wished to purchase a firearm, according to the criminal complaint. The broker advised the individual of the legal requirements for purchasing a firearm, and the individual responded specifically with “Ok, I don’t think I can process it, I’m from Mexico.” The individual then ceased texting.
Also on June 5, that police officer had come home, noticed an unfamiliar car parked in front of the residence, and taken photos of the vehicle and license plate, which turned out to be Boller Pena’s Mazda 3, according to court records.
On June 18, the dairy farm owner provided police with a copy of Boller Pena’s last paycheck from June 12. Employees at the dairy farm are normally paid on Fridays, and he said Boller Pena had essentially one and a half paychecks that were due to him.
The paycheck was cashed at Midwest Bank on June 12 at 10:22 a.m., and bank surveillance footage from that day showed a man believed to be Boller Pena entering the parking lot and proceeding to the southern portion of the parking lot, according to the complaint. He then entered the bank, approached a teller, and cashed his check from the dairy farm. His clothing was consistent with the dark clothing described by the woman during the time of the assault. He then left the bank and drove off.
Additional information from the Flock system showed the Mazda traveling through Wichita, Kansas, at approximately 6:41 a.m. on June 13, the morning after the assault. The vehicle was next spotted on the Flock system in Waxahachie, Texas, at 7:18 p.m. on June 13, according to court records.
On June 19, a Detroit Lakes police investigator was granted a GPS search warrant to track the locations of Boller Pena’s cellphone number. That same evening, the phone displayed locations in the Houston, Texas, area.
Detroit Lakes police officers conducted a surveillance operation with Homeland Security Investigation officials and confirmed Boller Pena’s location in Houston.
On June 24, Boller Pena was detained by Homeland Security Investigation officials and Houston police. Officers discovered a backpack in his vehicle containing dark clothing, including a dark top with a full face mask. Officers also found miscellaneous tools, a knife, duct tape, a condom, and a pair of gloves — black with gray rubber palms — in the backpack, consistent with what was previously described by the woman.
In an interview with police, Boller Pena acknowledged that he was previously in Minnesota and working at a farm, and that he drove to Houston “a few days ago” to find “better work.” He acknowledged he was driving the Mazda 3 while in Minnesota and drove the vehicle to Houston. He said he got rid of the car a day or two after arriving in Houston. He also admitted that the cellphone number being investigated by Detroit Lakes police is his number. He denied that the backpack found in the vehicle was his, but acknowledged that the black top with the facemask was his, and stated he had it in Minnesota because it was “cold out.”
Based on information provided by Immigrations and Customs Enforcement, Boller Pena is subject to a final order for removal and is in the custody of the Department of Homeland Security in Texas.
Minnesota
Minnesota Lynx bested by Connecticut Sun 90-89
The Minnesota Lynx fell to the Connecticut Sun 90-89 on Monday night. Brittney Griner scored a season-high 29 points and grabbed 10 rebounds, and Kennedy Burke added 16 points off the bench, including two 3-pointers in the final three minutes for the Sun.
Burke made a 3-pointer with 2:53 remaining in the fourth quarter to give the Sun a five-point lead, and Griner added a shot in the lane with 1:25 left to make it 84-79.
Burke sank a wide open 3-pointer from the top of the key with 44.5 seconds left for an 87-84 lead. Then, former Lynx forward Diamond Miller made a key block for Connecticut and Griner sealed it on a layup with 18.2 seconds left for another five-point advantage.
Leila Lacan had 13 points and Olivia Nelson-Ododa added 10 points and eight rebounds for Connecticut (5-16), which won its second road game of the season.
Kayla McBride scored 28 points for Minnesota (15-6) and Courtney Williams had 23 points, nine rebounds and six assists. Natasha Howard scored 18.
Minnesota was without Napheesa Collier (left ankle) and Olivia Miles (right calf). Dorka Juhasz made her season debut and finished with three points in 25 minutes.
Griner scored 13 points in the first half to help Connecticut build a 48-44 lead.
Minnesota coach Cheryl Reeve’s second attempt to become the WNBA’s career wins leader came up just short. The next chance will come Wednesday when Minnesota plays at Connecticut. Reeve is tied with Mike Thibault at 379 regular-season victories.
Up next
The teams play again on Wednesday in Connecticut.
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