Golden State arrived at Target Center on Monday with a 17-2 record and a franchise-record winning streak that had reached 12 games, which was the NBA's best record and best season start in team history.

So did the Warriors do right when they refused to trade young shooting guard Klay Thompson to the Timberwolves last summer in a deal that would have brought them Kevin Love?

"Apparently," Warriors new coach Steve Kerr said slyly.

The Warriors in October signed Thompson to a max contract extension, four months after they passed on Love to keep Thompson and Stephen Curry together on a team that reached the playoffs the past two seasons by winning 47 and 51 games.

"These kinds of discussions happen all the time in the NBA, the difference now is they're always public," Kerr said about a trade on the verge of happening around draft time until the Warriors backed away. "You can't have private discussions about anything. For me as a new coach, what I saw was maybe the best backcourt in the NBA and a chance to keep the group together. That's pretty powerful, especially when you know you're already pretty good."

The Warriors fired Mark Jackson as coach after last season's first-round, seven-game playoff loss to the Los Angeles Clippers and replaced him with Kerr, the former Phoenix general manager who worked as a TNT analyst at the time.

"You can never take winning for granted in the NBA because there's a very delicate balance," Kerr said. "You never know if the pieces really are going to fit until you see it. You might think they are, so when you've got a team that's just won 51 games, been in the playoffs a couple years in a row, that's young and growing together, you don't take that lightly. I think that was a huge factor in our decision to keep this group together."

Plan D

Wolves veteran point guard Mo Williams on Monday missed his third consecutive game because of back spasms. His absence keeps rookie Zach LaVine as the ironman starter there while Corey Brewer remains the makeshift backup.

"When I come in at the point, I just hope the score doesn't go way up," Brewer said. "It has gotten easier. Once you do it for a while, you see where you can make plays, see what's happening. It's tough out there in the beginning because I don't know what's going on. I'm used to running off the screens, not looking to see who is open."

Bennett listens

Perhaps you can attribute reserve forward Anthony Bennett's first double-double of the season — 14 points, 10 rebounds Saturday at San Antonio — to these simple words from coach Flip Saunders: Play harder … or else.

"Flip's just reiterated to me that I have to play hard every possession or I'm sitting down," Bennett said. "I don't like sitting on the bench. A lot of effort on my end has been lacking a couple of games. I'll be good from here on out."

Flip's impressed

Saunders coveted Thompson partly because he has followed Thompson's career through his father, Saunders' old college teammate Mychal. Saunders said he is even more impressed after watching Klay play for Team USA in August's FIBA World Cup.

"I've just really respected him and he even took his game to a new level," Saunders said. "I thought last year he was the best two-way guard in the league and he continues to play that way."

Etc.

• Wolves reserve forward Shabazz Muhammad played Monday with a sore knee after an MRI taken that afternoon showed nothing to keep him out. "It's still sore, but we're down some guys," he said. "I'll be fine. I'm a pretty tough guy."

• Injured point guard Ricky Rubio shot three-pointers Monday's morning without the aid of crutches or a walking boot. He won't return until January from a sprained ankle injured Nov. 7 at Orlando.