Indiana Pacers forward Aaron Nesmith (23) looks to pass around Cleveland Cavaliers guard Darius Garland (10) in the first half of Game 4 in the Eastern Conference semifinals of the NBA basketball playoffs in Indianapolis, Sunday, May 11, 2025. (AP Photo/Michael Conroy)

The Associated Press

SAN FRANCISCO — Without Steph: Those words keep coming up for the Golden State Warriors.

They will have to try again to find a way to win without Stephen Curry, who has missed the past two playoff games against Minnesota with a strained left hamstring.

“Our margin for error without Steph is obviously slimmer than it normally is, so we’ve got to be really focused on our game plan, discipline,” coach Steve Kerr said Sunday. “The effort was amazing.”

Yet even trailing 2-1 in the best-of-seven playoff series against the Timberwolves after a 102-97 defeat Saturday night, Jimmy Butler had some positive reflections:

“Of course, that we can compete without Steph,” Butler said. “We’re still as confident as ever. We’re going to go back to the film and the drawing boards and figure it out, and come back in here on Monday and (get) this thing to 2-2.”

Meanwhile at Madison Square Garden, the New York Knicks will aim to bounce back at home tonight after the Boston Celtics won 115-93 to pull within 2-1 in their Eastern Conference playoff series.

“I mean, it’s the NBA playoffs, we all got to walk in with that kind of urgency. Shouldn’t be something we have to tell people to do,” Knicks big man Karl-Anthony Towns said. “So, it falls on all of us to come in with that kind of urgency.”

Golden State will be bringing it, too.

The Warriors have another chance at Chase Center to even the series before returning to Minneapolis for Game 5. Curry is scheduled to be evaluated Wednesday, one week after his MRI exam following the injury early in Game 1 last Tuesday, so if all went well the soonest he might be available would be a Game 6 in San Francisco.

“I think the important thing is just to go out and perform no matter what’s going on, no matter if Steph is out there,” said forward Jonathan Kuminga, who scored 30 points off the bench Saturday.

The Warriors would like to find their 3-point shooting groove again after failing to make one in the first half on five attempts before finishing 10 of 23.

Sure, the offense is a concern, but Kerr keeps stressing how defense will be the key to winning this series. And on Saturday, the Warriors couldn’t stop Anthony Edwards or Julius Randle when it mattered.

Edwards scored 36 points while Randle had a triple-double of 24 points, 12 assists and 10 rebounds.

The Wolves were unfazed by a deficit and a raucous crowd, chipping away a possession at a time.

“I think we’re just more confident now than we have been in the past,” Minnesota point guard Mike Conley said. “We saw it tonight being down a couple points late in games, and we don’t seem to panic. We tend to kind of double down on what we do defensively. Offensively we got a good rhythm.”

The Warriors will lean once more on Butler’s guidance with Curry on the bench. Playoff Jimmy had 33 points, seven assists and seven rebounds.

“We’re down 2-1, we’ve got to weather the storm,” Buddy Hield said. “… We have to protect the basketball and just weather the storm and just give the ball to Jimmy and let him figure it out for us.”

Sunday’s games

THUNDER 92, NUGGETS 87: The Oklahoma City Thunder beat the Denver Nuggets at their own game.

The NBA’s youngest team made all the clutch plays in crunch time against an experienced squad teeming with a championship pedigree, knotting the second-round series with a win in Game 4.

Shai Gilgeous-Alexander scored nine of his 25 points in the fourth quarter, pulling the top-seeded Thunder from the brink of a 3-1 deficit against a Denver team known for closing out games while winning six of its last seven playoff series — and the two tight games earlier in this series that resumes Tuesday night in Oklahoma City.

PACERS 129, CAVALIERS 109: Pascal Siakam scored 21 points and the Indiana Pacers tied an NBA playoff record by taking a 41-point halftime lead before routing the top-seeded Cleveland Cavaliers for a 3-1 lead in the Eastern Conference semifinals.

The Pacers can earn a second straight trip to the East finals with a victory Tuesday in Cleveland, where they won the first two games.

Indiana jumped to an 80-39 lead at halftime and led by 44 points.