Stephen Curry Season-High Night Lifts Warriors Past Wolves

Stephen Curry season-high night lit up Minneapolis on Wednesday, as the Golden State Warriors held off the Minnesota Timberwolves 119-114 behind forty-four points from their 38-year-old franchise star. According to AP News, rookie Yaxel Lendeborg added twenty-six as Golden State won despite Minnesota missing injured guard Anthony Edwards.

The win pushed the Warriors to two wins and three losses after a rocky start to the season. For a team that has needed answers early, this was the kind of night fans have been waiting for, and it came on the road against a Western Conference rival that began the night three and one.

Curry turns back the clock

Curry's second quarter was the real show. According to the Warriors' official game recap, he poured in nineteen points in the period, scoring the team's first eleven of the frame after snapping a five-minute scoring drought with a three-pointer. He hit five threes in the quarter, tying Boston's Payton Pritchard for the second-most threes in a single quarter league-wide.

That topped his seventeen-point third quarter in Denver on Monday, so the veteran has now produced two monster quarters in three days. He also went a perfect sixteen for sixteen at the free throw line, tying his most makes without a miss.

The milestones kept stacking up. It was the seventy-sixth forty-point game of his career, the third most among active players. Fifteen of those have come since he turned thirty-five, which ties LeBron James for the most forty-point games after that age in NBA history.

The rookie keeps rolling

Lendeborg, the eleventh pick in the 2026 draft out of Michigan, hit eleven of twenty shots and grabbed eight rebounds. He entered the night as the league's top rookie scorer at 21.8 points per game and second among rookies in rebounds.

He is also the first Warriors rookie since Curry himself to score at least twenty-five points in three straight games. Having a young scorer take pressure off Curry is exactly what Golden State has lacked in recent seasons, and the early returns look promising.

A scrappy finish and a shuffled lineup

The Warriors led by as many as twenty-four points, but Minnesota fought back and cut the margin to as little as three late in the fourth quarter. Former Warrior Jonathan Kuminga led the Timberwolves with twenty points, a storyline that added extra spice. LaMelo Ball struggled, finishing with six turnovers against only three made field goals.

Golden State also kept tinkering. Georges Niang made his first start in a Warriors uniform, the team's fifth different starting lineup in five games, with Gui Santos out because of left knee tendinitis. Niang finished with seven points, three rebounds, two assists and two steals, and Golden State outscored Minnesota by five in his twenty-two minutes.

Why this matters for Golden State

Early-season basketball is noisy, and one game rarely defines a year. Still, a Stephen Curry season-high performance gives the Warriors something they badly needed: proof that the offense can still be elite when its leader is dialed in. Five different starting lineups in five games shows how much the staff is searching for the right combination.

There is also the matter of age. At thirty-eight, Curry is still producing the kind of shooting bursts that built the dynasty years, and he is doing it while sharing the spotlight with a rookie who looks ready for it. That pairing is a fun story for younger fans who grew up watching highlights of Curry's earlier peaks and are now watching a new chapter unfold.

The defense will need to tighten too. Giving up a twenty-four point lead down to a three-point game, even without Edwards on the other side, is the sort of lapse that better teams punish. Coaches will point to the closing minutes as the main thing to clean up before the Lakers arrive with a four and one record.

For Minnesota, the loss stings at home with a star missing, yet the Timberwolves stayed in the fight until the end. Kuminga's twenty points against his old team and the continued development of the rest of the roster suggest they will be dangerous once Edwards returns to the lineup.

What comes next

The Warriors now return home with two straight wins. They host the Los Angeles Lakers on Friday in the NBA Cup opener at Chase Center, with tip-off at seven p.m. Pacific on Prime Video, per the team. Minnesota, meanwhile, will hope Edwards is back soon after his right knee injury.

If Curry can keep pace and Lendeborg continues to grow, Golden State may be sneakier than its record suggests. For more on the league, check out our sports coverage and our world desk for the rest of the day's headlines. Friday night against the Lakers will be a real test of whether this was a one-night burst or the start of something bigger.