Iron 8 Come Through
March 13, 2009
With both teams substituting only out of bare necessity Saturday night at Target Center, the eight players used by Minnesota Timberwolves proved to be more durable than the eight who were chosen to play by coach Larry Brown and his Charlotte Bobcats. The result was a 108-100 Minnesota victory.
Plagued by injuries and illnesses, the current edition of the Wolves is quite different from the one that began the 2008-2009 season. The most telling loss was that of Al Jefferson, Minnesota’s team leader and “go-to guy.” The Timberwolves had played at home versus New York the night before without Randy Foye and Rodney Carney, and star rookie Kevin Love was staggering around with the flu. All three were in action against Charlotte, joined by Ryan Gomes, Craig Smith, Mike Miller, Sebastian Telfair, and Brian Cardinal. The rest of the roster was listed as “DNP – coach’s decision.”
The Bobcats entered the game tied for 10th place in the NBA East but just a half game behind Chicago and Milwaukee for a playoff spot. Charlotte was 6-4 in its previous 10 games. The Timberwolves, meanwhile were going nowhere in the West, yet managed the strength to come up with their 20th win of the season.
A night after a tough home loss to Houston, Charlotte fell behind early but made a close contest of the game late against the Wolves, who won for only the third time in 16 tries since losing Jefferson for the season with a torn ACL.
Minnesota made 60 percent of its shots from the field in the first half while building a 66-51 lead at the break. Halftime stats showed Gomes leading the Wolves with 12 points while Love had 10. The Timbewolves shot the ball with 60-percent accuracy.
After trailing by 15 points in the second half, the Bobcats pulled to 92-88 with 8:14 to play. But Carney, who returned after missing two games with a lower abdomen injury, gave the Minnesota plenty of breathing room with a three-point basket, followed by a hard dunk. He added another three-pointer with 2:35 to play to put Minnesota up 102-94.
“I expected us to be a little bit down, but we didn’t match Minnesota’s energy and that’s disappointing,” coach Brown said.
Raja Bell scored 21 points for the Bobcats, and D.J. Augustin finished with 18. Augustin started the third quarter in place of Raymond Felton, who briefly left the game with back spasms, and scored nine points to help key a 19-10 run.
It just wasn’t enough to overcome the Timberwolves, who improved the team’s record to 20 wins against 46 losses.
Three players, Love, Gomes, and Cardinal, were responsible for the bulk of Minnesota’s scoring. Love had 22 points, and Gomes and Cardinal had 21 each.