[外電] Wolves take road less traveled
http://www.startribune.com/511/story/1071080.html
This time, when the Timberwolves melted down, they stayed together, like some
sort of sweaty, dusty blue fondue. This time, when the Wolves pointed
fingers, they aimed them at the referees rather than at each other.
And that -- blaming others, while sticking tight themselves -- paid off with
a 95-89 victory over the Sacramento Kings on Wednesday night at Arco Arena.
Randy Foye's 20-footer from out front put the Timberwolves up 92-87 with 16.8
seconds left, their biggest lead to that point after trailing 70-63 through
three quarters. Corliss Williamson scored at 13.4 seconds, but Craig Smith
sank two free throws at 8.7 seconds to maintain the Wolves' cushion. Then Ron
Artest got whistled for traveling with 7.2 seconds left, the Kings running
out of time.
Ending their road losing streak at 11 games and winning for the first time
away from Target Center since Jan. 27, the Wolves (29-38) moved a half-game
ahead of Sacramento into the 11th spot in the Western Conference standings.
They are two games out of the eighth and final playoff spot, but they have
three teams to pass and 15 games to play.
For this night, sticking tight was a theme.
"That was one of the things that we talked about before the game," Wolves
coach Randy Wittman said. "Sacramento got up by nine, but we stayed together."
Foye scored a game-high 24 points in 26 minutes off the bench, while Kevin
Garnett had 17 points and 18 rebounds on a long shooting night. The Wolves
packed plenty of emotion into the game, too, with Garnett's 12th technical
foul of the season, a delay-of-game call against Ricky Davis when he
sauntered off the court while subbing out, and a technical foul on Wittman
with 9:23 to play from referee Bennie Adams for protesting a shoving foul
called on Garnett.
Down 75-67 early in the fourth quarter, the Wolves tied it with an 11-3 spurt
capped by Foye's breakaway dunk, then went up 81-78 on Davis' three-pointer
at 3:33. Over the next two minutes, the lead changed sides four times, with
two ties. Smith's three-point play made it 90-87 heading into the final
minute and miscues -- missed shots by Artest and Mike Bibby, Davis losing the
ball in the lane -- kept it there.
That set up the timeout to draw up Foye's pivotal jumper.
"That was one of the things we were saying in the huddles," Foye said.
"Things are tough right now, but we're going to pull this out. No one got
rattled."
Bibby led Sacramento with 23 points, but the Kings (29-39) got only five
points off their bench and lost for the seventh time in eight games.
Wittman stuck with the same point guard for two games in a row -- Mike James
started again -- but Trenton Hassell returned to the small forward spot he
had held for 58 games. Wittman felt Hassell could play even-up against
Artest, an old pal from their days together in Chicago, sparing the Wolves
from double-teams that would create openings for Kevin Martin or Bibby.
In fact, Artest was held in check with six points in the first half, and
Martin -- Sacramento's leading scorer at 21.0 points per game -- had only
three on 1-for-5 shooting.
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