Curry Cooks for 44, Wolves' Rally Falls Three Short

WEDNESDAY, OCTOBER 28, 2026 — TARGET CENTER, MINNEAPOLIS

Stephen Curry scored a season-high 44 points and did not miss a free throw all night — 16-for-16 — and Golden State still needed every one of them. The Warriors led Minnesota by 24 in the third quarter at Target Center, then watched a Timberwolves team playing its first game without Anthony Edwards erase all but three points of it in the final seconds, before Curry stepped to the line with the clock at zero and closed a 119–114 win himself.

It was Curry’s 15th career 40-point game at age 35 or older, tying LeBron James for the most in NBA history — a mark tracked by NBC Sports Bay Area and the New York Post and noted by the NBA itself on the night. Nineteen of the 44 came in one second-quarter burst that broke the game open. The last two came after everything else had nearly come apart.

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Nineteen in the second quarter

Curry started slowly — 2-of-8 from the field — then detonated. His first 3-pointer fell about three minutes into the second quarter, the next possession brought another, and a 17-point flurry in six minutes, heat-check 31-footer included, turned a close game into a rout in waiting; the New York Post counted 23 Curry points by halftime, and Golden State led 64–48. “I just see him doing what Steph Curry does,” Warriors coach Steve Kerr said afterward, per the Post. “What makes him special is it can happen at any time.”

The support came from a rookie. Yaxel Lendeborg scored 26 points on 11-of-20 shooting with nine rebounds — his third straight game of 25 or more, per Sports Illustrated — though his seven turnovers fed Minnesota’s second-half push. Brandon Williams added 11 off the bench, Golden State’s only other double-figure scorer.

The comeback that nearly landed

Golden State’s lead peaked at 78–54 in the third quarter on a Curry three-point play, Reuters reported, and the turn began the moment he sat: with Curry on the bench from the 5:01 mark of the third, Minnesota started cutting. The Timberwolves outscored the Warriors 66–55 across the second half, and by the fourth the margin was 93–81 and shrinking. Their leader was a familiar face: Jonathan Kuminga, drafted seventh overall by Golden State in 2021, traded away last season and signed with Minnesota in September, put up a team-high 20 points on 7-of-15 shooting with five assists and no turnovers against the franchise that raised him, the Associated Press reported. Jaden McDaniels scored 19, Terrence Shannon Jr. added 19 off the bench, and Ayo Dosunmu had 17; LaMelo Ball was held to eight points on 3-of-11 shooting.

It came down to one possession. Bones Hyland’s bank shot cut the margin to 117–114 in the final seconds. Curry was fouled by Rudy Gobert — the call upheld on review, per Sportradar’s play-by-play — and with 0.0 on the clock he made both free throws, his 15th and 16th without a miss, to seal it.

The first night of life without Ant

This was Minnesota’s first game since Tuesday’s announcement that Edwards would undergo arthroscopic surgery on his right knee, a procedure expected to keep him out about two months, per the Associated Press. Edwards had averaged 33.3 points through the Timberwolves’ first four games; without him, Minnesota fell to 3–2, a second straight loss after a 3–0 start. Golden State, at 2–3, has won two straight after opening 0–3, Reuters noted. The Warriors host the Lakers on Friday.

The Sports Desk’s read: the duel at the top of this page is the night in miniature — Curry’s 44 with a perfect night at the line on one side, Kuminga’s clean 20 with zero turnovers against his old team on the other. Minnesota’s comeback was real, and it still ended with the ball in a 38-year-old’s hands at the stripe, because on the first night of the Edwards-less months, nobody in a Wolves jersey could take the ending away from him. The tie with LeBron is the headline that travels. The free throws are the ones Minnesota will see in its sleep.

Game Center: Golden State Warriors at Minnesota Timberwolves · NBA hub · the whole hub: Stats Hub.