Wolves record: 8-25
From the Associated Press:
Randy Foye scored 21 points, Al Jefferson added 18 points and 14 rebounds and the Minnesota won consecutive games for the first time this season, beating Chicago 102-92 on Saturday night.
“It took us to wait until we got to the New Year to get it,” Jefferson said. “Hopefully, we’ll keep this thing going.”
Trailing 73-72, Minnesota didn’t score its first points in the fourth quarter until Foye made two free throws 4:06 in. Minnesota’s first field goal didn’t come until Jefferson made a jumper with 6:35 left to give the Wolves a 76-75 lead. Minnesota never trailed again and made it 79-75 on Foye’s 3-point play with 6:03 left.
On Saturday, the Wolves placed their faith in an ability to score inside against Chicago’s block-happy defense, in Sebastian Telfair’s capacity to carry the point-guard load almost by himself, and ultimately in Randy Foye’s flair for … shot-blocking?
Have mercy.
“That was a huge play,” Ryan Gomes said of Foye’s fingertip defense on a Ben Gordon three-pointer, a deflection that all but ended any chance of Chicago staging a last-second rally like the ones that have plagued Minnesota all season. “It’s what we needed.”
The Wolves and the Bulls started Saturday’s game by combining to miss their first 16 shots. The first basket was scored by Chicago’s Ben Gordon until the game was more than four minutes old. The Wolves led by 17-16 at the end of the first quarter.
Ollie went to a hospital to have the elbow set back into place after injuring it in a collision. McHale compensated by playing Foye and Telfair together in the backcourt for much of the game. “I don’t have a medical degree, but it didn’t look very good to me,” McHale said…
Guard Rashad McCants, who, according to a celebrity gossip website, spent New Year’s Eve in Las Vegas with girlfriend and reality TV celebrity Khloe Kardashian, did not play Saturday after he played less than seven minutes Friday night. McHale said he elected to play Rodney Carney 14 minutes instead because he “gives us great energy and we just went with Rodney Carney.”
Add The Sports Daily to your Google News Feed!
