Golden State Warriors guard Stephen Curry dribbles the ball against Minnesota Timberwolves forward Jaden McDaniels in the second half at Target Center in Minneapolis on Jan. 15, 2025. / Jesse Johnson / Imagn Images
The Minnesota Timberwolves will face either the Golden State Warriors or Houston Rockets in the Western Conference semifinals after closing out the Los Angeles Lakers with a 103-96 win in Game 5 of their first-round series on Wednesday.
The Warriors currently have a 3-2 series lead in their best-of-seven series against the Rockets with a chance to close it out at home at Chase Center in San Francisco Friday night. The Wolves will have to wait at least until then to find out their second-round opponent, though there are plenty of reasons to be intrigued by both of the potential playoff matchups.
The Rockets are a young and rising team like the Wolves that feature a deep roster and present lots of challenges. The storylines for a potential series with the Warriors, well, they write themselves. Jimmy Butler would finally have to make his return to Target Center, while Rudy Gobert and Draymond Green have plenty of history and disdain — one certainly can’t forget the altercation in a November 2023 game when Green put Gobert in a headlock and was subsequently suspended.
Not to mention that matchup would give Anthony Edwards the chance to put away not only Kevin Durant, Nikola Jokic, LeBron James and Luka Doncic in the playoffs, but also Steph Curry, and all before Edwards even turns 24 years old.
Regardless of the history or the team, here’s a look at each of the potential second-round matchups for the Wolves:
The Wolves and Rockets split the regular-season series, with Houston winning the last matchup between the two teams on Feb. 21, though Minnesota was without Rudy Gobert, Julius Randle and Donte DiVincenzo for that game. Green had 35 points in that contest, dueling it out with Anthony Edwards, who scored a game-high 37. But Sengun, who’s leading the Rockets in scoring in the playoffs at 20.8 points per game, has been the biggest thorn in Minnesota’s side. He averaged 25 points, 11.3 boards and 5.3 assists against the Timberwolves, including a triple-double and a 38-point double-double.
All five of Houston’s starters are averaging double figures in the playoff series against the Warriors:
The five-game regular-season sample size between the Wolves and Warriors won’t be much of an indicator of anything. Four of those games took place before the calendar flipped to 2025, and all five occurred before the Warriors acquired Butler and made their late-season push. The one thing those games do show is that it’ll likely be Jaden McDaniels getting the assignment on Curry as he defended the Warriors star for far and away the most minutes of any player on the Wolves.
What the playoffs have shown about the Warriors is that coach Steve Kerr isn’t afraid to make adjustments and go deep into his bench at any time. He’s used three different starting lineups, turning to Kuminga, who hasn’t been featured as much since the team acquired Butler, during Game 3 when Butler was sidelined due to injury. Hield started Games 4 and 5 alongside Curry, Butler, Green and Podziemski after Moody got the starting nods in Games 1 and 2. It would be interesting to see whether Kerr relies more heavily on Post to contend with the Wolves’ size with Gobert, Randle and Naz Reid.
Should the Warriors close out the Rockets in Game 6 Friday night, the Wolves would host them for Game 1 Monday night at Target Center in Minneapolis. Should Houston force a Game 7 with a win Friday night, Minnesota would either visit the Rockets in Houston on Tuesday for Game 1 or host Golden State on Tuesday. Games 2, 3 and 4 would be every other day.
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