SAN FRANCISCO — In the kind of cruel way that only comes with a career as decorated and as influential as his has been, Steph Curry may only have himself to blame for the Golden State Warriors losing in his return from a five-game injury absence.
Not because Curry went 6 for 15 from 3-point range, missing a few good looks that are normally layups for him, but no doubt because of rust accrued while rehabbing a quadriceps strain. Not because he missed two free throws in the same game, something that rarely happens for a career 91 percent shooter at the line.
On Friday night, Curry and the Warriors lost because he created a monster three years ago, or so the monster says.
Donte DiVincenzo had been a good player during his first four seasons in the NBA before landing in Golden State in 2022. Once he put that Warriors jersey on, once Curry and Klay Thompson baptized him in the Splash-filled waters, DiVincenzo turned into the kind of player capable of doing more than beating you with hustle and grit and intensity. Curry, Thompson and Draymond Green gave DiVincenzo an advanced degree in dagger wielding, and he plunged two of them into the Warriors with the kind of heartlessness that Curry knows all too well.
The first came with the Timberwolves trailing 117-114 with 1:48 to play. DiVincenzo was 2 for 8 from deep at that point and 2 for 14 dating back to the Wolves’ brick-filled loss to the Phoenix Suns on Monday. The Timberwolves were reeling, having let a 12-point lead with 5:50 to play evaporate under a hail of Curry haymakers and in danger of yet another late-game collapse in a season that already has too many of them.
The pre-Warriors DiVincenzo probably wouldn’t have had the guts to take the shot, not with the Wolves’ throats getting raspy as another choke loomed. Not with Julius Randle on the floor as the go-to player. But he spent an entire season watching Curry and Thompson shoot with impunity and listening to Green tell him to never doubt himself.
“It changed me, my approach, my mentality, how I process the game, how I live with negatives in my career,” DiVincenzo said. “I think it changed my entire trajectory of my career, and after that, I’ve been who I am.”
So he let it fly. Splash.
Eighty seconds later, the Wolves were clinging to a 120-118 lead when Randle drew a double and fired a pass to DiVincenzo in the corner. Moses Moody was right there to contest the shot, and DiVincenzo could have pumped and driven to find a high-percentage shot at the rim for him or his teammates. But that’s not what he saw Curry and Thompson do up close. Shooters shoot.
Another splash, this one deflating a Chase Center crowd that had exploded just a few minutes earlier as Curry started going for the kill.
Playing without the injured Anthony Edwards (sore right foot) and the resting Mike Conley, the Timberwolves ripped off a 17-0 run early in the fourth quarter to take a 108-96 lead with under six minutes to go. But these are the Timberwolves, who protect leads like the Cincinnati Bengals protect quarterback Joe Burrow, watched Curry shake loose for three 3s in the next three minutes to push the Warriors ahead 115-114.
At that moment, with Edwards in street clothes, the Wolves could have folded. But DiVincenzo delivered, as did Rudy Gobert, who had 24 points, 14 rebounds and eight dunks, tied for the most by one player in a game this season.
DiVincenzo scored 21 points, Randle had 27 points, nine rebounds and six assists and Naz Reid added 18 points and a career-high-tying seven assists for the Wolves (16-9), who have won four of their last five games that have gone to clutch time.
“I think going through storms, being able to keep our composure and stay together is really important,” Gobert said. “We’ve had times earlier this year where we were on the other end of it. Tonight, I felt like I was very proud of the team. We could’ve lost our mind. We could’ve got disconnected. We did the opposite. We stayed together.”
DiVincenzo has had his share of struggles this season. Without a classic point guard, DiVincenzo has been one of the Wolves tasked with bringing the ball up more often than he normally does. He nearly had a costly turnover midway through the fourth when Curry knocked the ball out of his hands in the backcourt. But a smart challenge by Wolves replay coordinator Jeff Newton showed that Curry fouled DiVincenzo while going for the ball, and the Wolves retained possession.
DiVincenzo did not turn the ball over in 35 minutes on the court, even though the Wolves were even more starved for ball-handling after emergency starter Bones Hyland left five minutes into the game with a bruised right knee. Coach Chris Finch had to get creative, reinserting Rob Dillingham into the rotation and leaning on Randle, Jaden McDaniels and the previously struggling Terrence Shannon Jr., who had nine points and three assists in 31 minutes, to get the ball into the frontcourt.
Dillingham, who had a rough first three quarters to go with a rough first 21 games of his second season, hit two big buckets in the fourth. Reid hit a pair of clutch free throws, and Gobert scored 12 and grabbed six rebounds in the fourth quarter alone.
“Tonight we just settled down with the lights on,” DiVincenzo said. “We made big plays. When we stay together, we stay composed, it doesn’t matter who we have on the floor. When we’re a unit and we’re together, we’re really damn good.”
DiVincenzo had been in the league for four seasons before landing in Golden State. In Milwaukee, he was a champion, a hard-nosed grinder willing to do all the dirty work to help the Bucks reach the mountaintop.
In Sacramento, he was waylaid, miscast in a franchise going nowhere.
When the Warriors offered him a cut-rate deal in 2022, he was 25 years old and still trying to find his way to a real career. Looking back on that experience now, as an ultra-valuable culture-setter and shotmaker that can fit in on any team in the league, DiVincenzo sees his one year in Golden State as the birthplace of the player he has become.
He watched Curry and Thompson get more shots up in practice than any other players on the team, reputations and accomplishments be damned. He embedded himself in the Warrior ethos, understanding that all of that work in practice gave them license to shoot without conscience or hesitation when the game was on the line.
It suited him.
“What he picked up here from Steph is just the power of really being a threat to shoot every time you touch it,” Warriors coach Steve Kerr said. “I think he became much more aggressive after he left here. … I loved coaching Donte. He’s a winner and a guy I’ve always admired.”
DiVincenzo left Golden State for a bigger deal with the Knicks, landing in New York as a changed player. The humility that comes with life as an NBA role player was supplanted by a taste for the jugular acquired by watching Curry feast on it. DiVincenzo became indispensable in New York, erupting in the Eastern Conference semifinals against Indiana with games of 25, 28, 35 and 39 points in the series.
He was the lynchpin of last season’s blockbuster trade that sent him and Randle to Minnesota for Karl-Anthony Towns. After a year of acclimation, DiVincenzo was thrust into the starting lineup alongside Edwards this season and has been one of the few consistent sources of energy and tenacity in the Wolves’ uneven start.
The toughness and edge have always been there. It’s been inside him, dating back to his days in college at Villanova and in high school in Delaware, when he had to fight to get noticed. But the unabashed belief in his ability to win games, to put any clanks out of his mind and rise with confidence when the game is on the line? That was honed at Curry’s hip.
“I didn’t shoot the ball well at all tonight, but I could care less if I’m being honest with you,” DiVincenzo said. “My year here changed my entire mindset. Playing with that dude over there, 30, it just changed my mindset on my misses, my mindset on my approach. I want the big shot at the end of the game. That’s the mindset I have.”
DiVincenzo has become so important to these Wolves, averaging career highs in minutes (31.3) and assists (3.7) to go with 13.5 points and 38 percent 3-point shooting. He has also shown a knack for coming up with a blocked shot, a deflection or a steal at just the right time to spark the Wolves. It hasn’t been perfect, but it has been essential, and it should make the Timberwolves think long and hard about including him in any potential trades for a true point guard.
On Friday night, in the house that Curry built, DiVincenzo stared right into the eyes of the greatest shooter to ever do it. The avalanche was coming down the mountain. Curry scored 14 of his 39 points in the fourth, and DiVincenzo had not found his own shooting rhythm in the last three games. Yet, he remained undaunted. It could have been enough to make Curry proud, had it not come at his expense.
“He’s a competitor. He’s a warrior,” Randle said. “All the looks he was getting before, he was missing, and those were good looks. I knew he would come out and continue to be aggressive.”
That’s not quite right, Julius. He was a Warrior.
Donte DiVincenzo is a Timberwolf now.