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Basketball Aggregated: Yahoo Sports NBA
6 min read • 28 Oct 2026

Steph Curry's 44 points vs. Timberwolves remind Warriors what could have been

By: Top Tipper
Aggregated news from Yahoo Sports NBA Read Original Source ↗

Steph Curry's 44 points vs. Timberwolves remind Warriors what could have been originally appeared on NBC Sports Bay Area

From the outside looking in, the Warriors’ 119-114 win Wednesday night at Target Center was billed more so as Yaxel Lendeborg vs. Jonathan Kuminga than Golden State vs. the Minnesota Timberwolves. 

On the one hand, there’s Lendeborg, a 24-year-old playing the role of co-star alongside Steph Curry as a rookie. On the other hand, there’s Kuminga, who’s on his third team in his sixth NBA season, is a week younger than Lendeborg and never was on the type of timeline his counterpart now is for the Warriors. 

The two matched up against one another much of the game and had different levels of success. Lendeborg scored 26 points, and his nine rebounds were tied with Draymond Green and Joan Beringer for a game high. But his seven turnovers were a game high, too. 

When Kuminga played his first game against the Warriors last season as a member of the Atlanta Hawks, he scored just two points on a lowly 1-of-9 shooting. Kuminga in his second contest against the Warriors, and first in a Timberwolves jersey, scored a team-high 20 points. 

Neither was the real story of the night. Curry was for the umpteenth time of his historic career. 

His signature Curry Flurry occurred in the third quarter Monday night in Denver when he scored 17 points in eight minutes against the Nuggets. It came a quarter earlier two nights later. Curry in the second quarter against the Timberwolves dropped 19 points in just under nine minutes, going 6 of 10 from the field and 5 of 7 behind the 3-point line. 

What made his fingers turning to flames even more impressive was that this stretch came after Curry missed his first four threes and scored only four points in the first quarter. He missed his first 3-point attempt of the second quarter, and then made four straight shots – including three 3-pointers – in about 100 seconds of play. 

“The first three threes I shot, all of them felt good,” Curry said to Bonta Hill, Chris Mullin and Festus Ezeli on “Warriors Postgame Live.” “I got my feet underneath me, and all you need to do is see one go in. Shooters know that. I kept finding good looks. Got one from deep. It’s just staying in it, staying next-shot mentality. It’s what I pride myself on as well. You got to have a short memory as a shooter, and thankfully got it going.”

A 23-point first half was followed by a 21-point second half for Curry to give him a season-high 44 points. Curry let it fly from long distance and made six threes on 16 attempts. He was 11 of 27 overall, but in unique and unusual fashion, Curry kept getting to the free-throw line. 

Curry took 16 free throws and made all 16, giving him his most free throws in a single game without a miss. He’s now a perfect 39 of 39 on free throws this season, and the Warriors are 5-0 all time when Curry shoots at least 16 of them. Speaking of history, Curry set another milestone in Minnesota. 

At 38 years old, Curry now has 15 40-point games after turning 35, tying him with LeBron James for the most in NBA history. Michael Jordan is next on the list with 12. 

“It’s a blessing, man,” Curry said of his latest feat. “I got reminded today how fortunate I am to still be playing this game at the level that I expect, and when you have nights like these where the body’s feeling good, the ball starts to go in, all the joy comes back and all the work that you put in. 

“It’s an incredible list, and the longevity is something that I’m trying to pride myself on, and it’s going well right now.”

What Curry did to the Timberwolves was a reminder of what could have been, and what is still possible with him in a Warriors jersey. 

It was a reminder of May 6, 2025, the date that Curry sustained a strained hamstring on this exact court in Game 1 of the Western Conference semifinals after torching the Timberwolves for 13 points in just under 13 minutes.

The Warriors always have felt they would have won the series with a healthy Curry, and then who knows what happens after that. Facing the Oklahoma City Thunder would have been a daunting task, but OKC needed seven games to beat a hobbled Denver Nuggets team in the semifinals, and seven to beat the Indiana Pacers in the NBA Finals, in which Tyrese Haliburton went down with a torn Achilles in the first quarter of Game 7. 

Playing the what-if game is a waste, and the Warriors have moved on. But watch how Curry was moving and scoring on the Timberwolves defense, and take a look around the league. 

The Warriors won this game without Jimmy Butler, Moses Moody, Gui Santos and Kristaps Porziņģis. Their opponent, the Timberwolves, didn’t have their best player in Anthony Edwards, and they won’t for up to two months. 

The Thunder now are without Jalen Williams and Cason Wallace for the foreseeable future. Jaren Jackson Jr. is out for six to eight weeks for the rejuvenated Utah Jazz, the Nuggets look like a mess, and the Western Conference all the sudden isn’t the gauntlet everyone has become accustomed to. 

In the East, Haliburton is hurt again, Kawhi Leonard is back on the Toronto Raptors but is out with swelling in his knee, and the Orlando Magic are down two of their top players because of injuries to Paolo Banchero and Jalen Suggs. 

The NBA season is in its second week, and the landscape already is turning upside down. For the Warriors, their timeline is being expedited by the emergence of Lendeborg, and Curry continues to make all possibilities feel plausible. 

There’s what could have been, and in Year 18, Curry just reminded everyone what could still be as long as he’s a Warrior.

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