Western Conference Semifinal Preview 2025: #6 Minnesota Timberwolves v. #7 Golden State Warriors

Western Conference Semifinal Preview 2025: #6 Minnesota Timberwolves v. #7 Golden State Warriors

As we wrap up the first round of the 2024-25 NBA Postseason, the Western Conference Semifinals in the West have arrived. This series consists of the #6 Timberwolves led by Anthony Edwards and the #7 Warriors, who are led by aging Steph Curry. We love an underdog matchup. While they are the underseeds from their first round battle, I truly believe this is the best teams are in this round. These two teams matchup well together, and each game could be fairly competitive. Let’s dive into our Western Conference Semifinal series preview!

GAME	DATE	MATCHUP	TIME (EST)	TV
Game 1	Tuesday, May 6	Warriors @ Timberwolves	9:30 p.m.	TNT
Game 2	Thursday, May 8	Warriors @ Timberwolves	8 p.m.	TNT
Game 3	Saturday, May 10	Timberwolves @ Warriors	8:30 p.m.	ABC
Game 4	Monday, May 12	Timberwolves @ Warriors	10:00 p.m.	ESPN
Game 5*	Wednesday, May 14	Warriors @ Timberwolves	TBD	TNT
Game 6*	Sunday, May 18	Timberwolves @ Warriors	TBD	TBD
Game 7*	Tuesday, May 20	Warriors @ Timberwolves	8:30 p.m.	ESPN

What to know about the Minnesota Timberwolves:

Starters:

• Mike Conley
• Anthony Edwards
• Jaden McDaniels
• Julius Randle
• Rudy Gobert

Key Reserves:

• Donte DiVincenzo
• Naz Reid
• Nickell Alexander-Walker

Despite contrary to popular belief, the Timberwolves dismantled the Lakers pretty handily, thriving on defense and not turning the ball over. The Wolves simply do not shoot well, but rebound well enough on the offensive glass to get a lot of 2nd looks to compensate for that. Despite the lack of other elements to his game, Rudy Gobert has been a vital piece to the Wolves’ winning with his defense and rebounding. However, he doesn’t solve, and is one of the main problems with the Wolves’ lack of scoring production. The Wolves don’t shoot well from 3, and Rudy Gobert doesn’t space the floor out at all for them.

Even if the Wolves run PnR with Rudy Gobert to open up the paint, defenses should and will play drop coverage and force the ball handler to shoot. They won’t respect Rudy Gobert if he decides to pop off the pick either. There lies the dilemma with the Wolves. Rudy Gobert played well against the Lakers because the Lakers didn’t really have a big to guard Gobert. The Warriors have Draymond Green, which is about a 50-50 chance for Gobert to play well. Anthony Edwards is obviously a star in the league, but still lacks the shooting from the outside consistently to be taken seriously from there. He is a streaky shooter, though. When he’s feeling it, he’ll shoot well from anywhere, but he has to get to that point first.

The Wolves’ top 8 guys, though, are solid and will compete with anyone. Defense and rebounding win championships, and the Wolves can do that well.

What to know about the Golden State Warriors:

Starters:

• Steph Curry
• Brandin Podziemski
• Buddy Hield
• Jimmy Butler
• Draymond Green

Key Reserves:

• Moses Moody
• Quinten Post
• Gary Payton II
• Kevin Looney

The addition of Jimmy Butler has been great for the Warriors as they start making their last few title runs with Steph Curry’s age. This team is the epitome of small ball and modern basketball. The top 4 for the Warriors work well together, Buddy Hield and Steph Curry are 3-point specialists, Jimmy Butler has never really had a 3-point shot, but can shoot from 3, but now has more spacing inside the 3-point line to work. Draymond can at least shoot the corner 3 to open up the floor. This all works for the Warriors on the offensive end.

Defensively is where the Warriors struggle more, Jimmy Butler can defend, and Draymond has always been their most versatile defender. However, the Warriors are just meh, other than them on defending. Luckily, the Wolves don’t score very well, so this will be interesting to see.

Steph Curry Would Have Supported A Kevin Durant Warriors Reunion

Biggest Question(s):

1.) How do the Warriors counter Rudy Gobert?

Much like the Lakers, the Warriors do have the lack of bigs to counter Gobert. Draymond can guard Gobert, however, especially with his history, I’m not sure how well Draymond stays out of foul trouble or just trouble in general. Kevin Looney can defend and rebound to an extent, but I’m not sure how well he does. As we saw, if the Warriors don’t keep Gobert off the offensive glass, it could be a tough series for the Warriors

2.) Can the Warriors get hot?

Buddy Hield needs to have a good series if the Warriors want to win. In fact, he really just needs 4 good games. The reason why the Warriors won game 7 vs. Houston is because Buddy Hield went off for 33 points. The Warriors won 3 of their games in the first round when Hield scored 15 or more points. The Warriors need consistent scoring production, especially against the Wolves’ stingy defense. Steph and Butler will get points and should get at least 50 together, hopefully more, but the rest of the Warriors need to contribute and consistently to offset the Wolves.

3.) How do the Wolves handle the Warriors spacing?

The Warriors will space the floor out better than most teams in the league, and that might cause of problem for the Wolves. If the Warriors can get hot and force Gobert to play out on the perimeter, it could be bad news bears for the Wolves. Naz Reid is much better defending on the perimeter, but if the Warriors choose to go 5-out, or even 4 out-1 in high with a big on the free throw, it could cause problems. Look for the Warriors to target Gobert on the perimeter and a lot of pick and pops to get him in bad positions.

Prediction: Timberwolves in 5

The Warriors are old, if it were the Warriors from 5 years ago vs this team now, I think that goes to 7. However, Steph can only do so much, Draymond can be beneficial to a team just as much as he can be detrimental. Hield is too inconsistent, and the Warriors don’t have a strong enough bench or size to counter the Wolves. The Warriors can and will shoot well in some of these games, but the lack of everything everywhere else will be their downfall. The Wolves don’t score well enough, but they will rebound and play defense and that’ll be enough for this series. I would say that the Wolves’ 8th guy is better than the Warriors’ 5th guy. That’ll give the Wolves plenty of versatility to throw at the Warriors after they just came off a game 7. Wolves in 5 in this Western Conference Semifinal to put them in the Western Conference Finals.

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