Warriors-Timberwolves Preview

By JEFF MEZYDLO
Posted Apr 22 2012 12:33AM

For the first time in three years, the Minnesota Timberwolves are looking to win consecutive games in April.

Whether star Kevin Love will be on the court to help them accomplish that remains to be seen.

The Timberwolves look to build on their first victory in almost a month while trying to avoid a 16th straight April home defeat Sunday night against the Golden State Warriors, who hope to avoid a ninth consecutive loss overall.

Minnesota (26-38) had lost 27 straight games in April dating to 2009 before snapping an 11-game overall skid with a 91-80 win at Detroit on Thursday.

"We finally got a win," said guard J.J. Barea, who had 13 points, 12 assists and six rebounds.

Hit hard by injuries, the Timberwolves are looking for anything positive to finish the season after falling out of playoff contention in the Western Conference.

"Hopefully, we can win out and build on this," forward Anthony Randolph told the Timberwolves' official website after he had 15 points and 10 rebounds against the Pistons. "We're all competitive. Everybody wants to win and this has been a tough season. We lost a lot of important guys. If we had everyone here and we were healthy, we would have make the playoffs, no problem."

It's uncertain if Love will miss a sixth straight game with a concussion.

Averaging a career-high 26.0 points with 13.3 rebounds, Love went through a light practice Saturday and has passed all the required post-concussion tests.

"I just want to be back out there and be part of the team again," Love said. "If I'm able to play, I'll go out there. If not, then so be it. But I'm just trying to work back."

Though the Timberwolves have no real reason to play Love, they could certainly use their All-Star as they try to snap a six-game home skid. Minnesota has dropped 15 in a row at home in April dating to a 110-101 overtime victory over Milwaukee on April 16, 2008.

Minnesota split the first two meetings this season with Golden State (22-41). Love had 29 points and 12 rebounds in the Timberwolves' 97-94 home loss to the Warriors on April 4.

Golden State, however, has allowed 110.0 points per contest on 49.9 percent shooting during a season-high six-game road skid since that victory in Minnesota.

The Warriors' 99-96 defeat at Houston on Saturday also extended their season-high overall skid to eight games. Rookie guard Klay Thompson scored 24 points as the depleted Warriors lost for the 20th time in 24 games.

The end of the season likely can't come soon enough for Golden State, which has been hampered by injuries to forwards David Lee (groin and stress reaction), Andris Biedrins (concussion) and guard Stephen Curry (ankle).

The team announced earlier Saturday that Curry and Andrew Bogut would undergo surgery on their injured ankles, then went out and shot 49.3 percent to remain competitive against a club fighting for a playoff spot.

"I was really proud of my guys," coach Mark Jackson said. "We were short-handed, but put ourselves in position down the stretch to win the ballgame."

Thompson has averaged 24.0 points on 47.1 percent shooting in the last six games.

Warriors rally from 21 down to beat Timberwolves

By JON KRAWCZYNSKI
Posted Apr 22 2012 10:49PM

MINNEAPOLIS (AP) Playing all 48 minutes of Golden State's third game in three nights, Charles Jenkins did his best to show everyone the Warriors are not tanking to sew up their draft position.

With no first-round pick this summer, the Minnesota Timberwolves have no reason to dump games. But it sure feels like they are to J.J. Barea, who blistered some of his teammates for not caring enough.

Jenkins had 24 points and nine assists to rally the Warriors from a 21-point deficit to beat the Timberwolves, 93-88, on Sunday night.

"He's a tough New York City kid," said Warriors coach Mark Jackson, a Big Apple point guard himself back in the day. "A tough, hard-nosed kid who has no quit. Totally competes, gets after it. He was banged up, bruised up, battered up, but found a way to gut out a big-time performance."

Brandon Rush scored 10 of his 19 points in the fourth quarter and also grabbed nine rebounds. Klay Thompson scored 17 points for the Warriors, who snapped an eight-game losing streak.

The performance may have hurt the Warriors (23-41) in the long run. Utah holds their pick this year as part of a previous trade, and the only way the Warriors keep it is if they finish in the bottom seven of the league after the draft lottery. Golden State is in eighth with two games to play.

Nikola Pekovic had 19 points and 16 rebounds, and Barea had 14 points and 12 assists in all 48 minutes for the Timberwolves, who announced earlier that All-Star power forward Kevin Love would not play the final two games of the season because of a concussion.

You could've put together a nice All-Star team with the players who didn't play in this one: Steph Curry (right ankle), Andrew Bogut (left ankle), David Lee (groin), Andris Biedrins (concussion), Dorell Wright (right ankle) and Nate Robinson (right hamstring) were out for the Warriors; and Love, Ricky Rubio (left knee) and Luke Ridnour (right ankle) were out for the Wolves.

Being short-handed didn't keep Barea from blasting his teammates after the game.

"We've got problems here," said Barea, who shot 5 of 18. "We've got a lot of guys that don't care. ... We're just going to keep getting Ls until we get players here that care, that care about winning, care about the team and care about the fans."

Barea didn't name anyone specifically, but several objected.

"Until you point those guys out one by one, it doesn't really matter," said forward Michael Beasley, who scored eight points on 3-for-11 shooting and had nine rebounds. "That was a collective loss."

Martell Webster scored 18 points and Anthony Randolph had 14 points, seven boards and five blocks for Minnesota.

With Barea pushing the tempo in the open floor and Pekovic controlling the paint, the Timberwolves surged out to a 53-32 lead late in the second quarter.

Just like in their previous meeting in this building, when the Warriors came back from 20 down to beat the Wolves on April 4, Jenkins got rolling in the second half to bring Golden State back. The super-quick point guard had his way with Barea, scoring three straight buckets during a 10-0 run that cut the deficit to 68-63 late in the third quarter.

The Warriors then ripped off a 12-2 surge midway through the fourth quarter, culminating in a jumper from Jenkins to give them their first lead, 83-81, with 5:45 to play.

"Coach kept telling me to stay aggressive," Jenkins said. "The more the shots started to fall, the more confident I got in taking them. Everything just worked out."

Pekovic's putback gave Minnesota an 88-87 lead with 1:28 to go, but Rush came back with a 3, and Dominic McGuire converted a three-point play when he was fouled on a dunk to seal the win.

"There's some guys in here that have been more worried about other things," Wolves forward Anthony Tolliver said. "It's not that they don't want to win, it's just sometimes the team concept goes out the window. Whenever you're struggling a lot of times people want to blame somebody else, but the biggest thing is people have to look in the mirror, plain and simple.

"The hardest thing to do is to say, `My fault. It's on me.' It's real easy to say `You should've done (this) or you should've done that."'

NOTES: The Wolves made all 21 of their foul shots. ... McGuire finished with 12 points and seven boards. ... The Timberwolves hosted Rochester resident Igor Voykovinsky, who at 7-foot-8 is the tallest man in America.

Notebook: Warriors 93, Timberwolves 88

Posted Sunday April 22, 2012 10:28PM

By Jim Beilby, for NBA.com

THE FACTS: The cure to the Golden State Warriors road woes seems to be playing in Minnesota. With neither team having anything to play for other than pride, Golden State defeated the Minnesota Timberwolves 93-88 on Sunday night. The Warriors' only other victory in their last twelve road games also came in Minnesota on April 4, when they scraped out a 97-94 win. As in that win when they trailed by 20 before coming back to win, tonight Golden State trailed by 21 points just before half. Charles Jenkins led the Warriors with 24 points and Nikola Pekovic led Minnesota with 19 points..

QUOTABLE: "It was lack of discipline as a team. We talked about it. The team thinks that because you get a lead you think that area will go fine. You have to keep working on it. We didn't do it. And it's hard to turn it back on."
-- Minnesota coach Rick Adelman

THE STAT: The Warriors only shot 33.3% in the first half, but they shot 56.8% in the second. Minnesota on the other hand, was 10-for-40 from the floor in the second half and was outscored 44-22 over the final quarter-and-a-half.

TURNING POINT: Golden State trailed until the 8:05 mark in the fourth quarter when Brandon Rush hit a turn-around jumpshot to tie the game at 81. The score stayed close until Rush hit a 3-pointer in the corner with the shot clock running down with a little over a minute to play. Then a bad pass by J.J. Barea led to a steal and breakaway dunk and-one by Dominic McGuire with 58.5 seconds to play, and the made free throw gave the Warriors the five point lead they would finish with.

HOT (AND NOT): Warriors made almost as many field goals (15) in the third quarter as they did in the entire first half (16).

NOTABLE: This victory broke an eight-game losing streak for Golden State. ... Kevin Love sat out again for the Timberwolves, who announced before the game that Love would miss the rest of the season as he recovers from a concussion.

UP NEXT: For the Wolves, Thursday vs. Denver. For the Warriors, Tuesday vs. New Orleans, Thursday vs. San Antonio.

• Warriors: Bogut, Curry
• Timberwolves: Ridnour, Rubio

• Warriors: --
• Timberwolves: --

• Lead Changes: 3
• Times Tied: 4

• Arena: Target Center, Minneapolis, MN
• Officials: #33 Zach Zarba, #58 Josh Tiven, #65 Sean Wright
• Attendance: 15872
• Duration: 2:02