Chase Budinger strikes with 0.8 seconds remaining as Minnesota Timberwolves edge out Indiana Pacers – NBA Recap
On Friday night, the Minnesota Timberwolves entered their home game against the Indiana Pacers without Kevin Love, Ricky Rubio and J.J. Barea. Near the end of the first half, they lost Brandon Roy due to knee soreness.
Somehow, they still managed to clinch the win, albeit barely, courtesy a brilliant cut from Chase Budinger who received a feed from Andrei Kirilenko for a game winning layup with 0.8 seconds left on the clock.
Rick Adelman was thrilled with the close 96-94 win;
"You have to give Andrei [Kirilenko] credit [on that last play] because he was really patient when he got it and he didn't throw up a quick shot. Chase got an unbelievable cut from the 3-point line. . . After Nikola [Pekovic's]
miss, we were holding our breath that he could just finish the play. It was a great win for us."
Budinger ended the game with 18 points, leading the Wolves to their consecutive win. Alexey Shved had 11 points, including two clutch layups down the stretch and seven assists while Nikola Pekovic added 13 points and eight rebounds
for the Timberwolves, now 4-1. Second year forward Derrick Williams also scored 15 points for the hosts on a 6 of 9 shooting from the floor.
For the 2-4 Pacers, George Hill had a huge game with 29 points and 7 assists. He was 11 of 17 from the floor that included a step-back trey with 3.8 seconds to play, which levelled the score at 94. David West scored a double with
19 points and 13 rebounds; Paul George had 11 while Roy Hibbert added 10 for Indiana, who shot 44 percent on the night as compared to a 50 percent effort by the Wolves.
The game was a tight affair right from the get go. The first quarter ended with the Wolves leading by 2. They reeled off an 8 nil run early in the second, but the Pacers bounced back and tied the game at 32 with 5:51 remaining
in the first half. The scores remained close till the end of the third quarter when the Wolves pulled off a 7-1, bridging the third and the first 43 seconds of the fourth quarter, to take a 72-64 lead.
A Shved layup with 8:09 remaining in the game made it a 9 point game, but back came the Pacers with a 7-0 run to make it 76-78. They got within two four times after that before finally tying the game at 86. That was where Shved
made two consecutive layups, the last one on a Kirilenko steal, to start an 8-2 run and give the Wolves a 94-88 lead with 39.2 seconds remaining.
In the ensuing passage, Hill went on a personal 6 point run to tie the game, but it was just not Pacers’ night.
"We just have to learn how to finish the game," Hill said after the game. "We're there at the end of the game and that's the good part. There's no use in hanging our head now, there's 75 games left in the season, but we have to
learn how to finish it."
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