Timberwolves upset Warriors 111-97 in Shenzhen at NBA China Games 2017

SHENZHEN, Oct.5 (Xinhua) -- The young Timberwolves of Minnesota came from behind to beat defending champion Golden State Warriors 111-97 in Shenzhen, the first stop of NBA China Games 2017 on Thursday.

Known as the Splash Brothers, Stephen Curry and Klay Thompson received warm welcome stepping onto the court before they rewarded the audiences with consecutive three-pointers in the first quarter.

Warriors' 15-4 lead motivated Karl-Anthony Towns to score eight points in the first quarter but Timberwolves was still 20-32 down. However, the game was turned around in the second quarter, during which Timberwolves outscored Warriors 30-23 to cut the deficit down to 50-55 before the interval.

The defending champion continued to suffer as Curry had his fourth and fifth foul within one minute with more than eight minutes left in the third quarter, moreover, leader of Warriors' bench Nick Young fell down with his waist hitting the ground, forcing him to go to the locker room in the game. Gibson's three pointer helped Timberwolves to tie the game 79-79 before they became unstoppable, storming 32-14 in the fourth quarter to enjoy a 111-97 victory.

Kevin Durant had game high 20 points, Curry contributed 14 points, six rebounds and four assists, Thompson had 13. Towns and Jimmy Butler led Timberwolves with 16 points.

"I though tonight we played well for a quarter and half, we should up by 15 points at half instead of five, we got lazy. And then the second half was very poor." Said Warriors head coach Steve Kerr.

"The atmosphere was great, the energy was good, the fans were really into it, we know we have a lot of fans here, we didn't give them enough to cheer about in the second half but all of these were really fun." He added.

The two teams will head to Shanghai to prepare for the second stop of NBA China Games 2017 to be held on Sunday.