The Golden State Warriors survived a furiours Timberwolves comeback, winning 119-114 on Wednesday at Target Center.

Stephen Curry had a game-high 44 points, including 16 free throws. Yaxel Lendeborg had his third straight game with 25-plus points, finishing with 26 points and nine rebounds.

Jonathan Kuminga had a team-high 20 points for the Wolves.

Here are two takeaways from Wednesday's game.

Warriors Need Crunch-Time Offense Tweak

The Warriors almost threw another game away on Wednesday.

At one point in the third quarter, the Dubs led by 24. The Timberwolves kept chipping away, but the Warriors appeared to have the game settled down after a Lendeborg dunk put them up 11 with 2:11 to go.

These were the results of their next four possessions:

- Curry misses wild layup attempt; Green offensive rebound; Lendeborg missed wild jumper as shot clock is about to expire
- Melton nearly turns it over, but gets it to Lendeborg, who is fouled and makes one of two FTs; Melton gets offensive rebound; Curry misses heavily contested three; Warriors get offensive rebound; Curry misses heavily contest layup
- Curry turns it over at half-court line (doesn't see defender doubling him)
- Green turns it over after getting a rebound

Scoring one point in those four possessions almost cost them the game, but fortunately for them, Jaden McDaniels missed two wide-open three-pointers, either of which would've cut it to one.

The Green turnover was pretty fluky, so there's no need to over-analyze it. The other possessions, though, had a similar theme, which was ball-handling issues.

On the first possession, Curry and Lendeborg couldn't get past their defenders in one-on-one situations, leading to wild shots.

On the next possession, Steve Kerr called for Lendeborg to set a screen for Melton, but that attracted a double-team that nearly led to a turnover.

On the third possession, Curry has to do a better job of anticipating a trap, but you have to wonder if the better play is to simply get Brandon Williams on the court. Of course you want the ball in Curry's hands because of his free-throw shooting ability, but from the standpoint of ball security, Williams' speed and handle makes him a great candidate to bring the ball up the court.

There's no obvious solution to their clutch-time offensive woes. They've had Curry on the ball and off the ball against Memphis and Minnesota, and in both situations they've had near-turnovers and extremely difficult attempts late in the shot clock.

This time, I won't try to suggest what they should do. But it's clear they gotta do something different.

Lendeborg's Ball-Handling Will Be One of His Swing Skills

Lendeborg had a career-high seven turnovers on Wednesday, and a couple of them were simply mis-dribbles against ball pressure.

It's not shocking that a 6'9" player who didn't handle the ball a ton in college would struggle with NBA defenders. But after Lendeborg took the Nuggets to the cleaners, it was a reality check that he's not already an upper-echelon ball-handler.

And that's OK. It's not like he's a bust if he doesn't consistently take high-level defenders like Jonathan Kuminga off the dribble. And after all, he still had 26 points in this game with a couple of ball-handling highlights:

Yaxel smelling blood when the switch isn't clean. Splits, goes to the rim against Lyles, and powers through. pic.twitter.com/v1UhnBoiQy

— Joe Viray (@JoeVirayNBA) October 29, 2026

Yaxel with the spin move 🌪️ pic.twitter.com/TIQ4ebHh2l

— Warriors on NBCS (@NBCSWarriors) October 29, 2026

Still, if he wants to hit his ceiling, he has to handle the ball better.

After the game, Lendeborg said he played "soft" and "wasn't decisive." We'll see if he corrects what went wrong for Friday's game against the Lakers.