76ers-Timberwolves Preview

By SANTOSH VENKATARAMAN
Posted Feb 18 2012 12:44PM

After suffering through their worst shooting effort of the season, the Philadelphia 76ers may be able to get untracked against their next opponent.

The 76ers have used hot shooting performances to win three straight over the Minnesota Timberwolves but will have to contend with a surging Kevin Love on Sunday night at the Target Center.

Philadelphia (20-11) finished at 33.7 percent from the field in Friday's 82-75 home loss to Dallas. The 76ers shot 21.4 percent in scoring 24 points in the second half, and their starters combined to miss all 14 shots after the break.

"I thought we missed a lot of shots that we usually make, didn't get them to go," said coach Doug Collins, whose club is seeking to avoid its first three-game skid.

Andre Iguodala was 2 of 9 overall for 10 points while the starting backcourt of Jrue Holiday and Jodie Meeks missed all 12 shots for three points. Leading scorer Lou Williams was held to 12 points on 4-of-15 shooting.

"We had a look on our faces of concern, and we have to do a better job of getting out of those funks like that," Iguodala said. "It kind of lingered with us. It's a learning experience."

Iguodala has been the driving force in Philadelphia's three-game run over Minnesota (15-16), averaging 20.3 points, 8.7 assists and 6.3 rebounds with a triple-double in the last meeting. The 76ers are shooting 53.7 percent during that win streak, the same percentage Elton Brand has had while averaging 18.0 points over the three games.

Brand will likely get some chances to defend Love, whose seven straight double-doubles have pushed his NBA-leading total to 27. Love is averaging 29.2 points and 16.6 boards in five games since returning from a two-game suspension for "driving his foot into the upper body and face of Houston's Luis Scola as Scola was lying on the floor" in a 100-91 win Feb. 4.

The power forward faced the Rockets for the first time since that incident and had 33 points and 17 rebounds Friday in a 111-98 road victory.

Second-year center Nikola Pekovic added a career-high 30 points and 12 rebounds for his fourth straight double-double.

"We thought we had a big advantage before the game with Love and Pek inside," coach Rick Adelman said. "A lot of people haven't paid attention to Pek, but he's been doing this to everybody."

The Sixers may be more aware of Pekovic than most teams. His 16 points in a 111-100 loss at Philadelphia on March 4, 2011, marked his highest total of his rookie season.

"He is a rising star," Love said. "He's been playing great this season for us and we are happy to have him. He's a guy that you put out there and he's going to get points, rebounds and draw fouls on the other team."

Love and Pekovic could be difficult to handle for a Philadelphia team that remains without starting center Spencer Hawes, who has missed the last six games with a strained left Achilles.

While Minnesota has allowed an average of 98.8 points in its last five games, the Sixers lead the league this season in scoring defense (87.2 ppg).

They're eager to begin a three-game trip after losing their third straight at home.

"We lost some games we should have won here now," Brand said. "Get back on the road, got a three-game stretch and then the All-Star break. Guys can get mentally right and get their bodies healed."

Love leads Wolves past 76ers with late FTs, 92-91

By DAVE CAMPBELL
Posted Feb 19 2012 11:08PM

MINNEAPOLIS (AP) Success and improvement breed confidence, a key to fending off frustration. Kevin Love has followed that formula and progressed to the point where his clutch contributions toward big wins are expected by the Minnesota Timberwolves.

Love scored 12 of his 20 points in the fourth quarter, including a pair of free throws with 0.1 seconds left, to lift the Timberwolves to a 92-91 victory over the Philadelphia 76ers on Sunday night.

"I can finish games. I can close games. But it has a lot to do with my teammates. They've had my back," said Love, who missed 13 of his first 15 shots. "They say if you keep putting yourself in that situation, you're going to eventually get comfortable with it."

With the Target Center crowd of 18,759 standing and roaring, Love drove to the basket off an inbound play with his head down and tempted Andre Iguodala to reach in and try to swipe the ball away from the baseline. The whistle sounded, Love walked to the line, and he calmly swished both shots.

"Playing three quarters of basketball like that in the past, I don't think I was mature enough to overcome that and persevere through that," said Love, who also grabbed his usual 15 rebounds.

Ricky Rubio had a career-high 22 points to go with six rebounds and five assists. His backup, J.J. Barea, added 14 points to help offset another strong game by Jrue Holiday of the Sixers. Holiday had 20 points on 10-for-20 shooting, plus five rebounds and three steals, but the league's best defensive team again failed to come through with the last-second stop it needed.

Coach Doug Collins listed overtime losses to New Jersey and Denver, and a one-point defeat to the Los Angeles Clippers in his lament over this one.

"It's a shame we haven't been able to get that critical stop. Our guys played very hard," Collins said.

Neither team led by more than one over the final 6 1/2 minutes. Love drained a 3-pointer down the stretch and hit a 21-footer with less than a minute to go to push the Wolves to a 90-89 lead. Thaddeus Young answered on the other end for the Sixers with a jumper from the wing, and Love missed from 3-point range.

Lou Williams, who got it going in the second half after Philadelphia's leading scorer attempted only three shots before the break, tried a crossover step-back jumper from the top of the key with Martell Webster in his face that rimmed out. Love grabbed the rebound with less than 4 seconds left, setting up the final possession.

The Sixers weren't pleased by the foul call, but Collins declined to speculate on it. Elton Brand said there was "no need to get into fines or anything." Iguodala said he thought he forced a jump ball.

"Both teams played good basketball. It was a competitive game. It just came down to the last play," said Iguodala, who had 13 points.

Nikola Pekovic had 17 points and nine rebounds for the Timberwolves (16-16), who notched their third three-game winning streak of the season to move back to .500. They play at Denver on Monday night, starting a stretch of 16 out of 23 games on the road. Coach Rick Adelman again shortened his rotation to eight, and the Wolves improved to 6-3 with Pekovic and Love in the starting lineup.

"We just showed we can play with anybody, and we didn't play on our level," Pekovic said.

Still in command of the Atlantic Division, the Sixers (20-12) played nine of their past 11 games against teams currently in the top five in either conference. This is their first three-game losing streak of the season.

"We are four last-second shots from having 24 wins right now," Brand said. "We've lost four games on buzzer-beaters or late shots or not getting a stop. We've just got to find a way to regroup and find a way to finish these games off."

Collins has been pushing Holiday to assert himself more offensively, and the third-year point guard tried to do that. It looked as if Rubio was listening in on the pep talk, judging by the first half. He helped the Wolves dig out of an early 18-7 deficit with a tying 3-pointer late in the first quarter. He also reached the free throw line six times, making all six.

With Love and Pekovic playing together now in the post, the Wolves have drawn even more attention around the basket, putting the onus on Rubio and his teammates in the backcourt to score on the perimeter.

"We had to take those shots. You can miss or make, but if you don't take it it's a bad shot," Rubio said, adding: "If they let me shoot, I'm going to keep shooting."

NOTES: The last time Rubio scored 20-plus points in a game was when he was a 17-year-old playing for the DKV Joventut club in Spain, 4 1/2 years ago. ... Williams had averaged nearly 19 points over his last seven games. He finished with 13. ... Adelman in 32 games is halfway to the victory total of predecessor Kurt Rambis, who coached 164 games here. ... Brand went just 2 for 9 from the floor.

Notebook: Timberwolves 92, Sixers 91

Posted Sunday February 19, 2012 11:35PM

By Phil Miller, for NBA.com

THE FACTS: Minnesota forward Kevin Love shook off a terrible start to score 12 fourth-quarter points, including the game-winning free throws with one-tenth of a second remaining, and the Timberwolves won their third straight game, beating Philadelphia 92-91 in Minneapolis.

Jrue Holiday led the 76ers with 20 points, but first-place Philadelphia extended its losing streak to three games for the first time this season.

Love missed 13 of his first 15 shots, but helped carry Minnesota's offense at the end of a game that never had a margin larger than one point in the final 6:47. And after rebounding Sixers' guard Lou Williams' 20-footer with 3.6 seconds to play and the Wolves trailing 91-90, Love was given the opportunity to win the game after a timeout. He took the inbounds pass and muscled his way toward the basket, and with :00.1 on the clock, Sixers forward Andre Iguodala was whistled for a reach-in foul. Love made both to finish with 20 points and 15 rebounds and give Minnesota the lead, and the Wolves easily broke up Philadelphia's attempt at a desparation lob pass tip-in.

Ricky Rubio scored a career-high 22 points, and Nikola Pekovic added 17 for the Wolves.

QUOTABLE: "You just need one good quarter. I was the weakest link out there, but shooters keep shooting."
-- Wolves forward Kevin Love, who was 2-for-15 at one point before scoring 12 fourth-quarter points.

THE STAT: 0-5 -- Philadelphia's record in games decided by four points or less.

TURNING POINT: Two minutes into the fourth quarter, Kevin Love was 2-for-15 from the field, had not hit a basket since midway through the first period, and was growing frustrated. But when he squared up for a 16-footer with 9:48 to play, his problems suddenly faded away. The shot fell, and Love followed up with a jump-hook in the lane and a 20-footer on the Wolves' next two possessions, making both. He pumped his fist as he ran down the floor after the second one, and he powered Minnesota's offense the rest of the way, scoring 12 points in the quarter.

QUOTABLE II: "We are four stops away from 24 wins. We played four games like that and lost all four. We lost to Deron Williams, Chris Paul, Andre Miller and [Kevin Love] today. It's a shame."
-- Sixers coach Doug Collins, after his team fell to 20-12.

HOT: With his fellow starters combining to make just 3-of-14 first-quarter shots, rookie guard Ricky Rubio took it upon himself to provide enough offense to prevent Minnesota from falling into too deep of a hole. Philadelphia's defense sagged off the point guard, trusting their interior defense to keep him from the basket, but Rubio hit two layups, two 3-pointers and a running bank shot in the lane to score 14 first-quarter points. After tying his career-high with 18 points Friday in Houston, Rubio set a new one Sunday, finishing with 22 points -- his first 20-point game since Nov. 25, 2007, while with Joventut in the Spanish League -- to go with his five assists.

NOT: The 76ers as a whole -- they have now lost three straight games for the first time this season. Coach Collins fretted before the game that "I don't want our guys to lose the positive energy that we've had. We're a little mentally fatigued, and I just don't want that to creep into our guys." But they blew an 11-point first-half lead and lost for the fifth time in seven games.

FANTASY SPOTLIGHT: Philadelphia point guard Holiday made 1-of-17 shots in his previous two games, but coach Collins said he wanted Holiday to be more aggressive and look for his shot more, fearing that the responsibility of getting his teammates involved was making him hesitant. Holiday responded with a 20-point game, going 10-for-20 from the field, and Collins said afterward he told Holiday that's the approach he wants to see in the season's second half.

GOOD MOVE: The Wolves have a tendency to lose focus for stretches, especially early in quarters, coach Rick Adelman said. So when Martell Webster's lazy pass was picked off by Lou Williams one minute into the fourth quarter, and J.J. Barea was the lone Timberwolf to chase the resulting fast break -- Williams missed a layup, but with no rebounders there, Thaddeus Young dunked it home -- Adelman angrily called time. "We play without thinking. I needed to wake them up," Adelman said, and Minnesota never trailed by more than six points again.

BAD MOVE: Young was trying to stay in front of Love on Minnesota's final possession, and Elton Brand was ready to rotate to the basket once Love got a step on him. But Iguodala, assigned to guard Rubio in the corner, spun and slapped at the basketball as Love drove past, catching him across the arm for a foul that sent Love to the line for the game-winning free throws.

ROOKIE WATCH: Philadelphia's rookie centers, Lavoy Allen and Nikola Vucevic, did a credible job of filling Spencer Hawes' position Sunday, combining to score 14 points and gather 12 rebounds with three blocked shots. But the Sixers still fell to 8-10 without Hawes, whose strained left achilles has kept him out of all but two games since Jan. 16.

NOTABLE: J.J. Barea returned to Minnesota's lineup after missing Friday's victory in Houston to be with his girlfriend, former Miss Universe Zulekya Rivera, as she delivered the couple's first child, a son named Sebastian. Barea scored 14 points on six baskets, none of them from farther than 10 feet away. ... Nikola Pekovic collected five offensive rebounds (and nine total) for the fifth straight game, tying the longest such streak in franchise history. He has three or more offensive board in his last 15 games. Pekovic scored 17 points and just missed his fifth consecutive double-double. ... Lou Williams may be the Sixers' leading scorer at 16.0 points per game, but he took only three shots before halftime, making one. He finished with 13 points on 5-of-12 shooting. ... Wolves center Darko Milicic dressed for the first time in a week, and played exactly one-tenth of a second. He was inserted into the game for the final play, when the Sixers tried a tip-in play that Milicic knocked away.

UP NEXT: For the 76ers, Tuesday @ Memphis, Wednesday @ Houston, Feb. 28 @ Detroit. For the Timberwolves, Monday @ Denver, Wednesday vs. Jazz, Feb. 28 @ L.A. Clippers.

• 76ers: Brackins
• Timberwolves: Lee, Randolph

• 76ers: --
• Timberwolves: --

• Lead Changes: 15
• Times Tied: 8

• Arena: Target Center, Minneapolis, MN
• Officials: #33 Zach Zarba, #42 Eric Lewis, #79 Kevin Scott
• Attendance: 18759
• Duration: 2:05