Pacers-Timberwolves Preview

By ALAN FERGUSON
Posted Feb 01 2012 2:25PM

The Minnesota Timberwolves have failed in three attempts at a .500 record this season. A home game against the Indiana Pacers might help them finally achieve that goal.

The Pacers, meanwhile, will try for a season high-tying third straight win on Wednesday night at the Target Center.

Minnesota (10-11) hasn't been at .500 this late in a season since it was 22-22 on Jan. 30, 2007, and gave itself another chance Monday with a 120-108 victory during coach Rick Adelman's return to Houston. The Timberwolves trailed by two points at halftime but pulled away with a franchise-record 42 points in the third quarter.

In his third game back from a sprained right foot, Michael Beasley tied a franchise scoring record for a bench player with 34 points.

Kevin Love added 29, narrowly missing his fourth 30-point game in five contests. Rookie point guard Ricky Rubio matched a season high with 18 points and had 11 assists for his fourth double-double in six games.

"It was a really good team win," Adelman said. "A lot of guys played and a lot of guys contributed."

Minnesota will try for its seventh win in 10 games by continuing its recent success at the Target Center against Indiana (14-6), which has dropped five of six there. The Timberwolves' latest home win over the Pacers was a 101-75 rout March 9 that tied their most lopsided defeat in 2010-11.

Love had 21 rebounds in that game as Minnesota posted a 66-46 advantage on the boards, and he and Beasley each scored 16 points. With 21 points, Tyler Hansbrough was the only Indiana player with more than 13, and Danny Granger missed 17 of 19 shots while finishing with just 10.

Granger is a career 29.5 percent shooter in Minnesota, his worst in any opponent's building, but has helped during a pair of strong scoring performances for the Pacers. He had 24 points during a 106-85 rout of Orlando on Sunday - Indiana's fourth win in five road games - then topped 20 for the fourth straight contest during a 106-99 home victory over New Jersey on Tuesday.

Paul George led the way in that second straight win with a career-high 24 points. Roy Hibbert contributed 18 and 14 rebounds despite having his broken nose set the day before. The Pacers, who are off to their best 20-game start since going 16-4 to open the 2003-04 season, topped 100 points once in their first 18 games.

"We continue to grow our identity," coach Frank Vogel said. "Paul George really carried us through some offensive stretches. He's a heck of a weapon at both ends."

Granger and Dahntay Jones had 19 points apiece during a 116-105 home win over Minnesota on Feb. 11. The Pacers have produced 109 or more points in seven of their last eight against the Timberwolves, but Minnesota has proved equally adept at scoring on Indiana with at least 101 in every game in that span.

The Pacers will be short-handed for this game with George Hill out indefinitely after sustaining a small fracture in his left ankle in Tuesday's victory. Jeff Foster is expect to remain out for the rest of the week with a sore lower back.

Minnesota reserve J.J. Barea says he'll be back on the court Wednesday after missing 10 of the past 11 games with a sprained left ankle. It's unclear if Darko Milicic (illness) will return.

Granger's 36 leads Pacers past Wolves, 109-99

By JON KRAWCZYNSKI
Posted Feb 01 2012 11:53PM

MINNEAPOLIS (AP) The Indiana Pacers and Minnesota Timberwolves have been two of the league's woebegone franchises over the past five seasons or so, both dealing with their own batch of problems that has kept them from relevance.

Somehow, a heated little rivalry managed to develop anyway. Now that both franchises are on the rise, the matchups are only getting more intense.

Danny Granger scored 29 of his 36 points in the second half, and a third-quarter skirmish with Kevin Love seemed to fuel the Pacers to a 109-99 victory over the Wolves on Wednesday night.

Granger also grabbed seven rebounds and hit 5 of 8 from 3-point range, and Darren Collison thoroughly out-played Ricky Rubio with 20 points, nine assists and six rebounds for the Pacers, who topped 100 points for just the second time this season.

"I've said all along I've never liked the Pacers," Love said. "I guarantee the next time we play them it will be just as physical."

The turning point came late in the third quarter, when Love and Granger tangled after a hard foul.

Love got frustrated after not getting a foul call on an offensive rebound, and the All-Star forward raked Granger across the shoulder on the other end. Granger took exception, shoving Love and jawing at him.

"Kevin Love is a friend of mine so I'm sure he didn't do it on purpose," Granger said of his Team USA teammate. "I think in the heat of the moment he gave me a hard foul. I got clotheslined and that's how I reacted. It kind of lit a fire under me. I kind of got going a little bit."

Pacers coach Frank Vogel sprinted onto the court and immediately pulled Granger away from the fray as Michael Beasley and Martell Webster came to Love's defense. The officials gave the incident a long look at the replay, assessing Granger with a technical foul.

"There's a reason I sprinted out there to save him," Vogel said. "Did you see what he did after that point? We wanted him in the game."

The Pacers went on a 22-12 run to blow the doors open and win for the 15th time in 21 games, their best start since 2003-04, when they went to the Eastern Conference finals. Granger scored 13 points in the surge, including a four-point play that gave them a 94-77 lead midway through the fourth.

"Danny took over," said Roy Hibbert, who had 15 points, nine rebounds and three blocks. "When you get the Grange mad, that's what you get, you know?"

Love had 21 points and 17 rebounds for the Timberwolves, who were completely overwhelmed by Indiana's size and flustered by the Pacers' tenacity.

"They take those pills and they've got all that toughness," Love said with his tongue planted in his cheek. "I don't know where that comes from. They all think they're tough guys. I just don't know where that comes from. That just blows my mind. They're all tough. And it makes me laugh."

Love wasn't laughing for much of the game. He made 6 of 16 shots and was 0 for 3 on 3-pointers and also tangled with Tyler Hansbrough under the basket several times.

"I knew that none of them were going to do anything," Love said. "Just play ball. It's part of the game. Hard foul. Everybody's getting fouled out there. They're silly."

Rubio had 10 points and six assists and Nikola Pekovic had 13 points and 12 boards.

Granger got off to a horrible start to the season, shooting 35 percent in his first 15 games. He has since found a rhythm, hitting nearly 48 percent of his shots in the last five games. He's topped 20 points in each of those games, his longest such streak since March 2010.

The Wolves were wearing Minnesota Muskies uniforms, an homage to the ABA team that played one season in 1967-68. Their offense harkened back to that era as well as they missed 15 of their first 18 shots, hit only 37 percent for the game and turned the ball over 16 times.

"You can't be running away from the punches," Webster said. "You have to go in there with your guard up and ready to fight. Something like that (skirmish) is probably what you need to jumpstart something. But we let them hit first and we couldn't recover from that."

NOTES: Vogel said there was still no update on G George Hill, who broke a bone in his left foot in the game against New Jersey on Tuesday night. Hill is out indefinitely. ... Wolves G J.J. Barea played for the first time in eight games, but had seven points on 2-for-8 shooting. ... The Wolves had 14 healthy bodies for the first time. F Anthony Randolph was the first healthy scratch of the season.

Notebook: Pacers 109, Timberwolves 99

By Jim Beilby, for NBA.com
Posted Thursday February 2, 2012 12:37AM

THE FACTS: In a season full of back-to-back games, the Indiana Pacers' physical style is serving them well. It wasn't pretty, but Indiana clawed its way to a 109-99 victory over the Minnesota Timberwolves on Wednesday night. The win gives them a 3-0 record in the second game of back-to-back games. Danny Granger led the Pacers with 36 points and Darren Collison added 20 points and nine rebounds. Granger has been playing very well of late; this is his fifth straight game scoring more than 20 points. As usual, Kevin Love led the Wolves, scoring 21 and grabbing 17 rebounds and Nikola Pekovic had a strong showing off the bench with 13 points and 12 rebounds.

QUOTABLE: "Really excited about this win for our club. A road win, second night of a back to back, against a club that is really playing at a high level. We are really excited to get out of here with a 'W' ... Danny Granger came back to life and had a stellar, stellar night, obviously."
-- Indiana coach Frank Vogel

THE STAT: For the second straight home game, Minnesota struggled to make its shots. The Wolves shot only 37.4 percent after after shooting 38.5 percent Sunday against the Lakers. This is undoubtedly testimony to both the Wolves' shooting woes and the defensive abilities of Indiana and the Lakers. The Lakers and Indiana are first and third, respectively, in opponent field goal percentage.

TURNING POINT: After an extremely physical third quarter, Indiana entered the final frame protecting a 76-70 lead. In the first half of the fourth quarter, Indiana increased that lead to 18 points on strong offense by Granger and impressive defense by Collison. Granger scored 12 of his 36 in the final quarter.

HOT: Indiana was 7-for-15 (46.7 percent) from the 3-point line, including a couple of key 3s by Granger midway through the fourth quarter to put the Wolves away.

NOT: Minnesota was 3-for-17 (17.6 percent) from the 3-point line, including 0-for-6 in the fourth quarter.

NOTABLE: Granger received a technical foul late in the third quarter for a dust-up with Minnesota's Love. ... Minnesota guard Ricky Rubio was named Western Conference Rookie of the Month for the month of January. ... The Minnesota Timberwolves wore the 1967-1968 Minnesota Muskies throwback jerseys.

UP NEXT: For the Wolves, Friday @ New Jersey, Saturday vs. Houston, Tuesday vs. Sacramento. For the Pacers, Friday @ Dallas, Saturday vs. Orlando, Tuesday vs. Utah.

• Pacers: --
• Timberwolves: Lee, Randolph

• Pacers: Granger, West
• Timberwolves: --

• Lead Changes: 4
• Times Tied: 6

• Arena: Target Center, Minneapolis, MN
• Officials: #25 Tony Brothers, #20 Leroy Richardson, #79 Kevin Scott
• Attendance: 15017
• Duration: 2:23