Rockets-Timberwolves Preview

By NOEY KUPCHAN
Posted Jan 18 2013 11:44PM

Struggling through their second lengthy stretch without injured star Kevin Love, the Minnesota Timberwolves find themselves on the verge of their longest losing streak of the season.

Things aren't about to get any easier with Nikola Pekovic sidelined for at least a week.

The injury-plagued Timberwolves try to avoid a sixth consecutive loss Saturday night against a visiting Houston Rockets team mired in a brutal skid of its own.

Love, who sat out the first 2 1/2 weeks of the season due to a broken right hand, has missed the last seven games after suffering the same injury in a 101-97 win at Denver on Jan. 3, and remains out indefinitely.

Minnesota (16-20) has since gone 1-6, dropping its last five games by an average of 16.0 points. The Timberwolves suffered another big blow Thursday, losing Pekovic to a badly bruised right quadriceps in a 90-77 defeat to the Los Angeles Clippers. The formidable big man is averaging 16.0 points and 8.6 rebounds and will miss the next seven to 10 days.

Alexey Shved, who averages 10.7 points, also left Thursday's matchup with an ankle injury.

"We've had a very difficult run of bad luck," team president David Kahn said. "However, as I said to the players, there is still in that circle of players that are available, a lot of talent.

"So I don't think this is a time for us to feel sorry for ourselves. Or to panic, or begin to do anything but simply play better, smarter, more together and try to win some games."

Besides Love, Pekovic and Shved, the Timberwolves are also dealing with injuries to Chase Budinger (knee), Brandon Roy (knee), Josh Howard (knee) and Malcolm Lee (hip). Terry Porter, who's been filling in while coach Rick Adelman tends to his hospitalized wife, only had seven healthy players for Friday's practice.

On a positive note, Ricky Rubio appears to be getting closer to full strength after returning from a torn ACL on Dec. 15. The Barcelona native, though, is averaging just 3.8 points and 4.7 assists over 11 games while shooting 22.2 percent. He went 2 for 9 from the field and finished with four points and six assists in his first start of the season against the Clippers.

"It's tough when you're playing, and there's no more bodies over there," Rubio said. "You have to remain doing new things every single game, and we can't get the rhythm. But that's no excuse. We are professionals. I think that players that are healthy have to step up and start doing a better job."

The Rockets (21-20) are also hoping to pick up the pace after averaging 95.7 points - 9.4 less than their season mark - over a six-game slide. Houston, which hasn't dropped seven straight since Jan. 6-18, 2006, saw its woes continue Friday in a 105-95 loss at Indiana.

The Rockets were outscored 31-18 in the first quarter and finished with 18 turnovers.

"We can get things going for a while but we have a period where we struggle," coach Kevin McHale said. "And we're constantly going through a period in the first half where we have a slew of turnovers and then it's a battle to get back and fight and get over the hump."

Omer Asik had a career-high 22 points and 12 rebounds but James Harden was limited to 17 points - snapping his career-best 22-game streak of scoring at least 20. Harden has gone a combined 10 for 42 (23.8 percent) from the field in his last two games.

While the Rockets have taken 16 of 20 from the Timberwolves, they had dropped three straight in this series before pulling out an 87-84 road win Dec. 26 behind 30 points from Harden.

New guys lift Wolves to 92-79 win over Rockets

By JON KRAWCZYNSKI
Posted Jan 19 2013 11:43PM

MINNEAPOLIS (AP) Chris Johnson arrived in Minnesota on Friday night just hoping to provide a little bit of energy and make a solid impression in his latest effort to catch on with an NBA team.

About 24 hours later, he was hearing chants of "M-V-P! M-V-P!" and teaming with another new face to carry the Timberwolves to a much-needed victory.

Johnson and Mickael Gelabale signed 10-day contracts on Saturday morning, then scored the first 23 points of the fourth quarter to lift the Timberwolves to a 92-79 victory over the slumping Houston Rockets on Saturday night.

Johnson, signed from Santa Cruz of the NBA Development League, scored 13 of his 15 points in the fourth. Gelabale, a forward who arrived from France on Thursday, had 10 of his 11 points in the final 12 minutes to help the injury-plagued Wolves snap a five-game skid.

"I don't think I drew it up that way," Johnson said with a big smile.

Neither did the Rockets, who were caught totally flat-footed by a pair of unknown players who showed more heart and hustle in 12 minutes than the entire Houston team has in about two weeks.

James Harden scored 18 points on 5-of-18 shooting for the Rockets, who have lost seven straight games. Houston shot 32 percent and committed 20 turnovers in another lethargic effort that had coach Kevin McHale scrambling to find anybody who could give them some energy.

The Rockets starters shot 25.5 percent for the game and Harden is shooting 28 percent (23 for 80) over the last three games.

"We're so out of character right now," McHale said. "We have turnovers, when guys are open we're not hitting them and we take the extra dribble. Right now, we're really in a funk and we've got to get ourselves out of it. That's the bottom line. And we will."

Andrei Kirilenko had 21 points and 11 rebounds, and Luke Ridnour scored 16 points for the Timberwolves, who had lost each of their previous five by double digits and were playing with just nine healthy bodies.

They appeared to be running out of gas again when the Rockets closed the third quarter with a 10-2 run to cut Minnesota's lead to 63-59, but that's when Johnson and Gelabale improbably took over.

The super-athletic Johnson scored Minnesota's first eight points of period. He threw down a huge alley-oop from Ridnour and was serenaded with the MVP chants when he knocked down two free throws for a 71-62 lead.

"I heard it," Johnson said sheepishly of the chants. "I don't agree with it at all. It's just a great fan base. They showed great support tonight."

Gelabale picked up from there, the French Olympian converting a three-point play during an 11-point scoring binge of his own to hold off the Rockets. Kirilenko's putback with 1:35 to play was the first bucket by someone other than the 10-day duo in the fourth.

Getting outworked by two players who weren't in the league on Friday may have been rock bottom for the Rockets.

They haven't had near the injury issues that the Timberwolves have, but they looked to be hitting a pretty big wall themselves over the last two weeks. They've been sloppy on offense, turning the ball over far too many times and falling behind by at least 10 points in eight of the last nine games.

"I'm not playing to the best of my ability," Harden said. "I'm not making shots, I'm not making plays. I think we're kind of in a fog right now. We've got to find a way to get out of this fog."

Looking for some juice, McHale started backup Patrick Beverley at point guard over Jeremy Lin, who was just 1 for 5 in the first half, to begin the third quarter along with reserves Carlos Delfino and Marcus Morris. But Beverley picked up two quick fouls and had to go to the bench and the Rockets went 0 for 7 and committed five turnovers in the first four minutes of the period.

"I honestly have no answer," said forward Chandler Parsons, who was 2 for 10. "We're not playing well, we're not playing good defense, we're not playing good offense. I don't think we're playing hard enough. I don't feel we're leaving it all out there."

Wolves owner Glen Taylor waited for coach Terry Porter, who is filling in for Rick Adelman while he tends to his hospitalized wife, to finish his postgame press conference and approached him with an outstretched hand.

"I wanted to come in here and see how you did this," Taylor said.

"Smoke and mirrors," Porter replied. "Smoke and mirrors."

NOTES: The Wolves were missing C Nikola Pekovic (bruised right quad), F Dante Cunningham (illness), G Alexey Shved (ankle), F Kevin Love (hand), F Chase Budinger (knee), G Brandon Roy (knee), F Josh Howard (knee) and G Malcolm Lee (hip). ... Lin scored 12 points on 3-for-12 shooting. ... Timberwolves F Derrick Williams had 11 points and five rebounds, and Ricky Rubio had seven points and six assists.

Notebook: Timberwolves 92, Rockets 79

Jim Beilby, for NBA.com
Posted Sat Jan 19, 2013 11:44 PM - Updated Sat Jan 19, 2013 11:44 PM

THE FACTS: In a game characterized by sloppy play and surprising performances, the Minnesota Timberwolves were less sloppy and more surprising than the Houston Rockets, defeating them 92-79 on Saturday night. The loss was Houston's seventh in a row and Houston dropped to 1-11 against Western conference opponents. Their sole victory came against Minnesota in Target Center on Dec 26.

With Minnesota ravaged by injuries (Kevin Love, Nikola Pekovic, Alexey Shved, Chase Budinger, Brandon Roy, and Malcolm Lee), sickness (Dante Cunningham), and missing their head coach, Rick Adelman, they got crucial and surprising contributions down the stretch from two players just signed this week to 10 day contracts, Chris Johnson and Mickael Gelabale. Johnson and Gelabale scored the first 23 points of the fourth quarter for Minnesota, expanding Minnesota's three-point lead to 15. Andrei Kirilenko led Minnesota with 21 points and 11 rebounds and Luke Ridnour added 16 points for Minnesota.

The Houston Rockets were led by James Harden's 18 points, seven rebounds, and five assists. But he did not have his best game, shooting only 5-of-18 from the field and 0-for-7 from beyond the arc.

QUOTABLE: "I would have to go back and look, but I don't recall in my experience having two guys like that come in and step in and putting in the kind of work for us tonight on both ends of the floor. It wasn't just the offensive end, but both of them had tough assignments at the other end. Chris obviously did a great job of protecting the rim and Gelabale doing a great job guarding Harden."
-- Acting coach, Terry Porter, on having two guys on 10 day contracts step up big.

THE STAT: As a team, Houston continually shot themselves in the foot with turnovers (20) and fouls (29). In addition, Houston struggled to make shots. They shot 32.1 percent from the floor, a season low for Houston and for a Wolves opponent.

TURNING POINT: After leading by 13 in the third quarter, Houston closed Minnesota's lead to three with 11:17 to play in the final quarter. At this point, Johnson and Gelabale had only combined for five points. After a 27-15 burst, Johnson and Gelabale had combined for 26 points and Minnesota had a 15 point lead with only seconds to play in the game. The Minnesota crowd, fully aware of the irony, opened up a MVP chant for Johnson as he shot a pair of free throws in the middle of Minnesota's run.

QUOTABLE II: "We are not playing well. Bottom line. We were really in a funk. We have to work our way out of it and that is all there is. There is nothing else besides hard work. We are not getting any easy baskets anymore. We were leading the league in scoring. We are not running hard. We are just so out of character now."
-- Houston coach Kevin McHale.

GOOD MOVE: To fill out their roster, Minnesota signed two players to 10 day contracts: Johnson, a center, and Gelabale, a forward. Johnson was with Minnesota in training camp and Gelabale was playing in Spain.

BAD MOVE: Minnesota gave Houston free points at the end of both the second quarter and the third quarter. A traveling call and poor defense led to a pair of Harden free throws with 1.6 seconds to play in the second quarter. And a technical foul by Ridnour added one more. And a terrible foul by J.J. Barea gave Toney Douglas another pair of free throws with 0.4 seconds to play in the third quarter.

NOTABLE: The Wolves started their 12th different lineup tonight.

UP NEXT: For the Wolves, Monday @ Atlanta, Wednesday vs. Brooklyn, Friday at Washington. For the Rockets, Monday at Charlotte, Wednesday vs. Denver, Friday at New Orleans.

• Rockets: Jones, White
• Timberwolves: Budinger, Lee, Roy

• Rockets: Beverley
• Timberwolves: Ridnour

• Lead Changes: 2
• Times Tied: 2

• Arena: Target Center, Minneapolis, MN
• Officials: #8 Marc Davis, #30 John Goble, #79 Kevin Scott
• Attendance: 16799
• Duration: 2:18