Wolves Fight For Home Win

Wolves Postgame Audio
Kevin McHale

Al Jefferson

Craig Smith

The Wolves bucked a pretty impressive trend by the Hornets to capture a 116-108 home victory on Friday night. Entering the game, New Orleans was 23-1 when having a share of the lead entering the fourth quarter. With a Chris Paul fadeway bank shot jumper, the Hornets grabbed a two-point lead heading to the final period.

Minnesota then scored 37 fourth quarter points en route to its 14th win on the season and effectively avoided a defeat when New Orleans took the lead at the end of the third quarter.

"When they were making little runs and shots we got back to the line and slowed the game down a little bit," head coach Kevin McHale said. "Paul has the ball in his hands so much, and he's such a weapon, and Posey was just draining threes there for a while I thought he might never miss. That was just a very good game for us to win, a tough game."

Down the stretch, both teams exchanged 3-point shots with James Posey nailing seven long bombs in the final stanza. Randy Foye, again, provided a scoring punch in crunch time as he hit back-to-back 3-pointers and blocked a Peja Stojakovic jump shot with 1:29 left in the game. A key defensive possession would follow with Al Jefferson chasing the red-hot Posey off the arc and Kevin Love challenged the layup attempt to force the missed shot.

Foye finished with 24 points and eight assists to help Minnesota tie Orlando for the best record in January. Inside the post, the Wolves took advantage of New Orleans, who missed David West and Tyson Chandler due to injuries. Minnesota enjoyed a 52-36 edge in the paint with Jefferson scoring a bulk of the points with 24 on the night and 14 rebounds.

With a bright smile on his face, McHale was elated with the performance from Foye, "he's a great great young man, and like I've said before, we've been blessed in this organization to have a lot of really good people, and he's one of them."

Facing a five-point deficit at the end of the half, the Wolves received strong performances from the bench, especially Rodney Carney. With 10 of his 15 points in the second half, Carney electrified the crowd as he elevated high above the rim to give Minnesota a 94-93 lead with seven minutes left in the contest. Carney also finished 3-of-5 from the 3-point line and he is quickly becoming the spark plug for the Wolves during the recent stretch of winning eight of their last 10 games.

"Tonight, Rod [Carney] gave us such a great lift, he played tremendously, so I got him out there. Rod's been very big for us all year when he's got a chance to play," McHale said.

While the Hornets took an early 30-25 lead at the end of the first quarter, Craig Smith established a physical presence for Minnesota. Smith scored nine points in the first period to set the tone and force New Orleans forward Melvin Ely into early foul trouble.

For the Hornets, Paul was relatively quiet in the first half with only eight points. The All-Star guard would then impose his will on the game to score 15 points in the second half and finish with 23 in the loss. Posey was terrific from the perimeter by shooting 7-of-11 from the 3-point line and 24 points to lead New Orleans in scoring.

Minnesota improved to 14-27 with another home contest on Sunday night against the Chicago Bulls.

Matt's Stats 1/23/09 vs. Hornets

Fan Reactions: "Mike Miller has an extra step tonight. He had his Five-Hour Energy before the game." --Kyle, 24, Blaine "The best thing about Foye is that he remembered how good he is when he goes to the rack." Pete, 23, Minneapolis

-- January in Minnesota has been cold, but the Wolves continued to be red-hot tonight. The Wolves are averaging 106.4 points per game and shooting 46.4% from the field in January. They've increased their three-point shooting from 5.1 triples per game in December to 8.1 per game in the new year.

-- Rodney Carney continued his strong play with 12 points in the fourth quarter, punctuated by an above-the-rim dunk with 7:01 to play that brought the Target Center crowd of 18,224 to their feet.

-- Kevin Love played only 10 minutes through the first three quarters, and didn't collect his first rebound until 10:44 in the fourth quarter. Love went on to grab five rebounds in the fourth alone, four of them on the offensive glass. He also finished with 11 points, one of seven Wolves in double-figures.

-- James Posey was absolutely on fire from three-point range for most of the game. He hit a season-high seven three-pointers, six of them coming in the second half.

-- Though New Orleans shot a higher field goal percentage (53.2-to-51.3%) and finished with more three-point shots (13-to-10), the Wolves led in almost every other statistical category. The Wolves outscored the Hornets 52-to-36 in the paint, had twice as many offensive rebounds (14-to-7) which lead to a 20-to-9 advantage on second-chance points, and got to the free-throw line 34 times compared to just 13 times for the Hornets.

-- Though Mike Miller struggled again from long range, he contributed in other important ways. Mike finished with 12 points, nine rebounds, and five assists.

-- Al Jefferson was his usual dominant self as he makes a final push to be in the All-Star game. Big Al finished with 24 points, 14 rebounds (five of them on the offensive glass), and two blocked shots.

--Matt Everhart