[外電] Double dose of heroics
http://www.startribune.com/511/story/1036320.html
So what was the biggest play?
Tough question, though just about everybody in the Timberwolves locker room
took a stab at it after a double-overtime, triple-espresso shot of basketball
Tuesday at Target Center. The Wolves had beaten the Lakers 117-107 when one
player after another was asked: What will you remember?
Everyone mentioned someone else.
To Marko Jaric, it was Ricky Davis making a three-point shot from the corner
with a minute left in the first overtime.
Ask Davis, and he'll tell you it was center Mark Blount, in a long-distance
zone, dialing in back-to-back-to back three-pointers as the Wolves were
rallying from six down in the final 2 ½ minutes of regulation.
To Randy Foye, it was Davis, slicing into the lane to put back a Kevin Garnet
miss with 3.3 seconds left in the first overtime.
To just about everybody else, it was Foye, late in the second overtime, the
Wolves up two, coming out of nowhere, soaring high with his right hand even
higher to tip in the rebound of Garnett's shot with 1:27 left for a
four-point Wolves lead.
"I still don't know where he came from," Wolves coach Randy Wittman said
afterward. "Top of the key? The wing? The corner? That was a heck of a play."
There were more than enough to go around. There was Jaric, blocking three
shots, the third on Kwame Brown in the post in the final minute of
regulation. Davis, playing nearly 56 minutes and scoring 33 points, seven in
the two overtimes. He drove, was fouled and hit two free throws to force the
first overtime, followed Garnett to force the second.
Then there was Foye, with the soaring follow, which he followed with a key
steal on an in-bounds pass seconds later.
It was the entire Wolves zone defense, which held Kobe Bryant -- who scored
40 points -- to just three in two overtimes.
Are you getting the idea?
"Tonight's win was definitely the definition of a team win," said Garnett,
who scored 20 points and had 20 rebounds. "It wasn't one or two people. Ricky
Davis had a great game. The young boys came in and played well. Mark Blount
hit some huge threes. ... I wasn't happy with how we started the game. But
like all wheels, once they get oil they start rolling smooth."
Don't know if anything about this game can be called smooth. Thrilling? Yes.
The game had more runs than an old stocking. In the second quarter alone the
Wolves and Lakers traded 12-0 runs.
And while there is no recent precedent to suggest this will be a
corner-turning victory, it certainly was uplifting. The Wolves became the
third team in NBA history to play back-to-back two-overtime games; They
earned today's day off.
But back to Tuesday's hero(es).
Blount? He hit those three three-pointers, the third one coming with 47
seconds left that pulled the Wolves within 97-96. After Lakers guard Smush
Parker made one of two free throws Davis drove the lane, was fouled and made
both free throws to force the first OT.
In the first extra session Bryant's three-pointer gave the Lakers a 105-103
lead with 44 seconds left. Foye missed on a drive, but then Garnett blocked
Bryant at the other end with 9.3 seconds left. Out of a timeout Garnett
missed but Davis was there for the tying putback.
And that set up Foye's moment. The Wolves, ahead by two, forced a Lakers
shot-clock violation with 1:44 left. On the ensuing possession Garnett shot
and missed. The ball bounced high, but there was Foye, flying in for the
putback.
Two views: "I seen something that looked like Superman coming through the
air," Garnett said. "But it wasn't Superman, it was Randy."
Said Foye: "I made the feed into the post. I knew he was going to take it, so
I just ran in there, jumped and it came right to me. It was just up there,
and I tapped it. That's all."
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