Timberwolves make it a game, until Stephen Curry makes it a loss

Timberwolves star Anthony Edwards wanted to talk about the officiating after Saturday’s 113-103 home loss to Golden State at Target Center.

So he did in a two-minute postgame address to the media that ended abruptly.

Many of his words weren’t printable, but in between them the message was clear.

“I get penalized for being stronger than my opponent,” he said. “So they give them the benefit of the doubt. They bump me the same way they bump everybody else, and I never get the call. I don’t know what’s got to go down, but something’s got to happen because that is terrible.”

Edwards said he wasn’t talking just about Saturday’s game.

“Tonight was bad,” he said. “They were getting ticky-tack fouls [called], and we weren’t getting nothing. It’s hard. Everybody keeps saying, ‘Play through it, play through it.’ It’s easy to say that when you’re not dealing with it. That’s what’s frustrating.”

Edwards was called for a technical foul in Saturday’s second quarter.

“I said one thing to the ref and he gave me a tech,” Edwards said. “[He] told one of my teammates if I said y’all calling a bad foul, he would give me a tech. They’re sensitive and they’re terrible. They penalize me and [Julius Randle] for being stronger than our opponent every night. I don’t get no calls. That’s how I feel about the officials, every game we play.”

The Wolves lost for the second game in a row after winning six out of seven. Both teams arrived at Target Center 14-12, each coming off lopsided losses Thursday. The Warriors lost 144-93 at Memphis, the 51-point margin the biggest in the NBA this season. The Wolves lost 133-107 at home to New York in the return of All-Star center Karl-Anthony Towns, their former No. 1 overall pick traded to the Knicks on training camp’s eve.

On Saturday, the Wolves trailed by 21 points in the second quarter, then took a brief one-point lead late in a third quarter in which they outscored Golden State 38-29.

They trailed 94-93 with less than five minutes left in the game, but Warriors star Stephen Curry’s three three-pointers fueled a 10-1 run. A double-digit lead with less than three minutes left was too much to overcome.

Curry made three of his seven three-pointers in that fourth quarter, just two nights after he scored two points — both on free throws — in that lopsided loss in Memphis. He scored 13 of his 31 points Saturday in the fourth quarter.

He gestured nearly as joyously when a basket issue that delayed the game more than 20 minutes was solved as he did when he provided his game-changing, fourth-quarter threes.

Draymond Green didn’t score at all in Memphis and didn’t play Saturday because of ankle soreness.

The same Warriors team that surrendered 144 points at Memphis limited the Wolves to 15 points until 5:38 remained before halftime. The Wolves started the game shooting 6-for-30, including 1-for-11 on three-pointers.

Edwards went 3-for-13 in the first three quarters and finished 6-for-20.

“Every night Ant sees some multiple guys on him,” Wolves coach Chris Finch said. “It’s hard for him to get a rhythm. We’ve got to help him out there. It was good for our bench to come in and contribute tonight. That will always be important.”

Donte DiVincenzo provided 19 points off the bench, and Naz Reid had 16 points and four three-pointers. Rudy Gobert scored 18 points on 7-for-8 shooting.

“We’re not a super-fast team, but I thought we played with more pace,” Finch said. “The pace in the halfcourt was good. We moved it and got into our stuff. I don’t think we waited until we were down 20 to start doing it.”