Since the Golden State Warriors took on the Houston Rockets in Game 7 of their first-round series, there’s an argument to be made that guard Buddy Hield has been the team’s best offensive player.
In Game 7 against Houston and Game 1 of the Warriors’ second-round series against the Minnesota Timberwolves, Hield scored a combined 57 points. For perspective, he averaged just 11.1 points per game with Golden State during the regular season.
With Hield having put together consecutive standout scoring performances in the 2025 NBA Playoffs and Stephen Curry set to miss at least one week with a hamstring strain he suffered in Tuesday’s Game 1, Timberwolves defensive ace Jaden McDaniels said that Minnesota’s defense needs to treat Hield like he’s Curry.
Jaden McDaniels says with Steph Curry out, now the Wolves defense has to shift its attention to Buddy Hield and “treat Buddy like Steph … shut his water off” pic.twitter.com/RvplW52Wzl
— Dave McMenamin (@mcten) May 7, 2025
Hield was Golden State’s leading scorer on Tuesday, as he dropped a game-high 24 points and hurt Minnesota from 3-point range. A good chunk of Hield’s points came from deep, considering he converted five of his eight 3s.
While Hield has been playing at a high level for Golden State of late, there isn’t an overwhelming amount of evidence that he can sustain this quality of play for a lengthy period of time.
After all, Hield is averaging just 12.5 points per contest in these playoffs, and he was a non-factor from a scoring standpoint in several of Golden State’s games against Houston. He mustered 11 points combined in Games 1, 2, 5 and 6. Additionally, he didn’t score a single point in Game 6 and missed all four of his shots from the field.
Hield also has been a big beneficiary of playing with a playmaker like Curry this season, and without him on the floor, he could have a harder time generating open looks from 3-point range. A whopping 92.9 percent of the Bahamian’s made 3s in the 2024-25 season have come off assists.
It should be interesting to see how Hield fares against the Timberwolves in Thursday’s Game 2 in light of McDaniels’ comments. He’s one of the better perimeter shooters in the NBA, but it remains to be seen if he can be relied on to carry the scoring load more than sporadically.
