Warriors get in shots on Wolves as streaks continue for both teams

And so it has already come to this.

In a season beset by injuries, illness, a family death and now 16 losses in the first 20 games, Timberwolves coach Flip Saunders drew a comparison from his team's plight to an old-time board game on a night it lost its sixth consecutive game, 102-86 to Golden State at Target Center on Monday.

"You ever play the game of Risk?" Saunders asked. "I feel like I'm Macedonia with two people, and I'm surrounded by like 50 people and countries on every side and I have to roll 12s for 49 straight times."

Never mind that Macedonia isn't one of the territories — Yakutsk is, for sure; Kamchatka, definitely — in the 57-year-old board game that's all about territorial possession as well as conquering and defending armies.

Saunders sounded more like the defending than the conquering on a night when Golden State star Stephen Curry made just one three-pointer and the Warriors made just five all game and still they comfortably extended their franchise-record winning streak to 13 games and their NBA-best record to 18-2.

The Wolves played once again without starters Ricky Rubio, Nikola Pekovic, Kevin Martin and reserve Mo Williams. The Warriors, meanwhile, have played almost all season without veteran forward David Lee and on Monday lost starting center Andrew Bogut to an irritated knee after he played fewer than three minutes.

Warriors first-year coach Steve Kerr called Monday's performance "not our best effort" and star guard Klay Thompson termed "ugly" a game in which his team led by 11 points before halftime and by 22 points in the fourth quarter. The Warriors didn't play like title contenders until they turned a six-point lead midway through the third quarter into a 75-56 lead, thanks to a 13-0 burst that Curry called getting "back to who we are."

"That's the type of team they are," Wolves forward Thaddeus Young said. "They could go on run in one or two minutes, and it can go from six points to 20 points."

A Warriors team that hasn't lost in nearly a month overcame the Wolves during a game when Curry made just one of seven three-point attempts and the Warriors collectively made just five of 22 threes. They entered the game third in the NBA in threes made, 9.74 a game.

"We finally stopped somebody from making threes," Wolves veteran forward Corey Brewer said exactly one week after the Clippers outscored his team 15-2 on threes. "It never used to happen, even though Steph missed five wide-open ones and that never happens. We had luck with us tonight, but we couldn't capitalize."

They couldn't in part because they committed 19 turnovers, six of them by starting rookie point guard Zach LaVine, and shot just 36 percent.

"We were tripping out there," LaVine said. "We were throwing the ball everywhere. We have to take care of the ball. Man, that's our baby. You can't be throwing your baby everywhere."

"A few probably," Saunders said when asked how many throws it'd take. "Tomorrow's another day, and we have to keep working. I know it's frustrating for the players. It's frustrating for me. It's frustrating for the fans. What we can't do is look at the past. We've just got to live in the present and not worry about down the road because when we do get people back [healthy], it'll help over the long run. Right now, it's tough going through what we're going through."