2025 NBA Playoffs Preview: Can The Warriors Slow Another Towering Team In The Timberwolves?

With the first round behind us and the 16-team pool dwindled down to eight, we can turn our focus to the second round of the 2025 NBA Playoffs. The Golden State Warriors were the last team of the bunch to advance to the conference semifinals. While they ultimately survived the relentless Houston Rockets, their next opponent, the Minnesota Timberwolves, is in many ways a supercharged version of the team they just narrowly defeated.

Do Stephen Curry, Jimmy Butler and Draymond Green have enough juice to win another series or will Anthony Edwards and the Timberwolves make their second straight Western Conference Finals appearance?

The Numbers

Minnesota Timberwolves

Record: 49-33, No. 6 seed

• Net Rating: fourth (plus-5.0)
• Offensive Rating: eighth (115.7)
• Defensive Rating: sixth (110.8)

Golden State Warriors 

Record: 48-34, No. 7 seed

• Net Rating: 10th (plus-3.2)
• Offensive Rating: 16th (114.2)
• Defensive Rating: seventh (111.0)

Can Golden State Slow Anthony Edwards?

When I previewed the Warriors’ first-round series with the Rockets, I emphasized how much Houston’s size would create problems for a vertically challenged Golden State team.

Much like Houston, the Timberwolves tout a great deal of length and athleticism in their own right. Among 7-foot-1 Rudy Gobert, 6-foot-9 Julius Randle, 6-foot-9 Naz Reid and 6-foot-10 Jaden McDaniels (6’10), they have enough size to hang with any frontline in the Association, let alone against a Warriors team usually at its best when the 6-foot-7 Green is playing center.

Where the Timberwolves are superior to the Rockets is they can also shoot. This season, the Rockets were 21st in 3-point percentage (35.3 percent). Meanwhile, Minnesota was fourth at 37.7 percent. This makes the paint-packing tactics Golden State employs to for its lack of interior presence far more risky. The Timberwolves are apt to burn the Warriors with kickout 3-pointers, much like they did to the Los Angeles Lakers at times in round one.

There’s also the Edwards-sized elephant in the room. The burgeoning superstar dissected the Lakers with his jaw-dropping athleticism en route to the fifth-highest Offensive Box Plus-Minus of the first round.

Now, the Warriors are a much better defensive team than the Lakers. However, they don’t really have an obvious answer for Edwards’ electrifying speed and quickness. Butler and Green are great defenders, but the former is best-suited as an off-ball roamer, while the latter is needed to protect the rim on the backline.

This leaves them with a list of imperfect options. Gary Payton II is pest at the point of attack, but his lack of shooting (32.6 percent from three) will give Gobert an easy assignment to sag off of on the other end. Moses Moody was handling primary matchups for Golden State during the home stretch of the regular season, but he’s coming off a pretty rough first round, which saw him lose his spot in the starting five. Buddy Hield is fresh off a historic Game 7 performance, but he’s a spotty defender unqualified to corral someone like Edwards (30th percentile Defensive Estimated Plus-Minus).

With all this said, the Warriors have (arguably) three of the four best players in this series (Curry, Butler, and Green). Historically, that’s quite the advantage in the postseason.

The Timberwolves’ X Factor: Julius Randle 

Randle is one of the most polarizing players in recent memory. He’s a three-time All-Star and two-time All-NBA forward whose value analytically inclined folks have long questioned because of inefficient scoring, inconsistent decision-making and lackluster defense.

However, against the Lakers, he proved all his doubters wrong (a trend stemming from the end of the regular season). He was efficient (61 percent true shooting), a sound playmaker (1.7 assist-to-turnover ratio) and a willing defender (plus-1.2 Defensive BPM).

Given how tricky it will be for the Warriors to defend Edwards one-on-one, they’ll likely throw extra bodies at him. That means Randle must capitalize on 4-on-3 power plays. And defensively, he’ll need to be even more engaged against the Warriors’ movement-heavy attack.

The Warriors’ X Factor: Moses Moody

Of all the options we outlined above, Moody is the player who can guard Edwards with the fewest tradeoffs in other areas. Theoretically, he’s a good defender (82nd percentile Defensive EPM), respectable outside shooter (37.4 percent from three) and capable cutter/closeout attacker (82nd percentile rim finishing among wings, per Cleaning the Glass). But theory doesn’t mean anything if it doesn’t play out in practice. Moody needs to shake off his poor first round and be the guy the Warriors require him to be in this matchup.

Prediction: Timberwolves In Six

The Timberwolves are more versatile, deeper and better offensively than the Rockets, which just pushed the Warriors to the brink. On paper, this gives them a clear advantage over Golden State. The only thing keeping me from saying this will be a clean or gentleman’s sweep is the pure splendor of the Curry-Butler-Green trio. But in the end, the Timberwolves will likely be too much for even that triumvirate of future Hall of Famers to overcome.