[外電] Wolves' lose 11th straight road game
http://www.twincities.com/timberwolves/ci_5483977
The Timberwolves showed Tuesday night that they could compete with one of the
NBA's best teams - for a stretch. But that's not enough to get the job done.
Spotty stretches of good play and defense won't do it either. The Phoenix
Suns took over in the third quarter to put away the Wolves, with Raja Bell
scoring 16 of his 22 points as the Wolves lost control of the game and
eventually lost 108-90 as their road struggles continue.
Bell made four of his five three-pointers in the quarter to sink the Wolves.
Bell helped Suns clinch the Pacific Division title for the third consecutive
season. The Suns made 16 of 38 shots from three-point range.
Leandro Barbosa, inserted into the Suns' starting lineup to rev up their
sputtering offense, added 20 points. Guard Steve Nash, the NBA's most
valuable player the past two seasons, had 18 points and 11 assists.
Minnesota played pretty well in the first quarter and closed the second
quarter with a 16-4 run to head into halftime trailing by just four points.
But the bottom line remains the same: another city, another loss. The Wolves'
losing streak on the road is 11 games, with a tough second game of a
back-to-back tonight at Sacramento. The loss leaves the 28-38 Wolves 2? games
behind Golden State (32-37) in the race for the eighth and last playoff spot
in the Western Conference.
"Adversity is not our friend right now,'' Wolves coach Randy Wittman said.
"I'm done talking about the playoffs, I've talked about it so much.''
The Wolves are 5-10 this season on the second game of back-to-backs. The
Kings are 18-14 at home and not exactly a pushover, no matter how much a
recent 1-4 road trip might be weighing on Sacramento. If the Wolves have
defensive lapses as they had Tuesday night, it will be a tough game to win.
"We've got to win these last two road games, bar none," said Minnesota
all-star Kevin Garnett, who had his usual big game against the Suns, scoring
30 points and grabbing 16 rebounds. He made 11 of 20 shots, but it wasn't
enough. His teammates made just 23 of 66 shots from the floor, or 34.8
percent.
The Suns, with Nash running the show, cruised past the Wolves in the third
quarter. Bell was hot in the third quarter, making 6 of 7 shots. The Suns
also pushed the pace better in the quarter, cranking up the tempo of the game
in their favor.
The Wolves did a poor job of guarding Bell, who found seams in the Wolves'
defense, and the Suns found him.
Bell is one of the league's top three-point shooters, so his shooting ability
shouldn't have been a surprise.
"They got us into transition to where we didn't match up and they got some
open looks,'' Wittman said. "Raja got hot and knocked down some shots.''
Phoenix shot 48.4 percent and led by as many as 21 points in the fourth
quarter.
The Wolves played pretty well in the first quarter. They had fallen behind
13-3 at Golden State and 27-10 against the Los Angeles Lakers in their
previous two games.
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