From Britt Robson/On The Ball:
In the locker room, Jefferson was talking about his attitude after the recent slew of final period fades, saying that he told himself at the beginning of the 4th that if the Wolves were in that situation again, “I’m going to take over.” And he did. “I got it out to Mike and he had a big shot. Randy did a great job; he kept calling plays for me,” Jefferson added, with a trace of irony or false humility. “We did a great job with the ball going through me.”
Rashad McCants played less than seven minutes after he got hit and had to leave in the second quarter because of back spasms. That might have been the best thing the Wolves had going for them down the stretch; Wittman couldn’t be tempted to put him in there.
Minnesota shot 51.4 percent from the floor, the team’s best output of the season, and their defense was the key to erasing the early Sixers lead. For one night, the problems that had been plaguing them, lack of offense, sporadic defense and panic in close games down the stretch were gone. And the misery of the streak seemed to dissipate and float away like icy breath on this wintry night. Hopefully it is gone for good.
When he needed just a little more space, he traded Carney and Calvin Booth to the Minnesota Timberwolves, ostensibly for a second-round draft choice. He even agreed to continue to pay Booth’s salary and about two-thirds of Carney’s salary.
“It was kind of weird,” Carney said. “I was sitting at home when [the Sixers] called and said I had been traded. I asked who I got traded for and they said they couldn’t tell me. The way I look at it is, I got traded for them to get Brand. I got traded for money.
Kevin Ollie said the Timberwolves call themselves the “76ers of the Midwest.”
When told of this before last night’s loss to Minnesota, Sixers coach Maurice Cheeks laughed and said: “The 76ers of the Midwest, huh?”
A trio of former Sixers are on the Timberwolves’ roster: Ollie, Calvin Booth and Rodney Carney.
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