Minnesota Timberwolves hold off a late rally to beat Denver Nuggets 108-105: NBA Recap
Kevin Love seems to have lost the love of the Minnesota Timberwolves fans. A day after he had made some disparaging comments about the dealings of the organization, the power forward delivered a poor – by his standards - 8 point and 14 rebounds performance, shooting only 3 of 17 from the floor.
The Timberwolves however still found a way to beat the Denver Nuggets 108-105. The Wolves’ free throws proved to be the game changer on the night. The side combined to get on the line 37 times, making good on 30 attempts. Denver in comparison, shot 14 of 24 from the line and despite a late rally, they couldn’t overcome the Wolves.
With Love cold from the floor, Nikola Pekovic and Andrei Kirilenko carried Minnesota. Pekovic had 22 points on 7-for-10 shooting to go with 11 rebounds and 2 blocks while Kirilenko had 18 points and 4 steals. J.J. Barea was impressive with 17 points, eight assists, five rebounds and two steals while Luke Ridnour added 15.
"It was just a really good win. I think we battled all night long. We didn't shoot the ball well again. We got the lead at halftime and kind of gave it away at the end. But we did enough to win in the end."
Minnesota coach Rick Adelman said after the win.
The Nuggets were paced by Kenneth Faried who posted a season high 26 points and 14 rebounds. Danilo Gallinari added 24 points; Ty Lawson had 17 points and 11 assists while Corey Brewer came off the bench for 14 point for the Nuggets, who shot 50.6 percent from the field.
Faried scored 14 of his points in the first quarter, by the end of which the Nuggs were leading by 8. Denver stretched their lead to 12 early in the second, but Minnesota pulled off an 11-2 run to make it 34-37. Denver pushed their lead back to seven points in the next couple of minutes, but the Wolves closed the half on an 11-3 run to take a 51-50 lead.
Minnesota kept the pressure on and were leading by 11 going into the last two minutes of the game. However the Nuggets came right back with a 10-2 run and with 34.4 seconds remaining in the game, they were just three down and had the ball in their hand. Lawson however lost the ball after the time out and a Kirilenko dunk, seconds later, really iced the game.
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