Minnesota Timberwolves narrowly escape with victory over Sacramento Kings – NBA Recap
The Minnesota Timberwolves travelled to the Sleep Train Arena in Sacramento on Tuesday night to take on the Sacramento Kings, and came out with a hard fought confidence building victory over the home team. The Kings put up a good
challenge in front of the home crowd but the Wolves were eventually able to pull away in the final period and take the game 97-89. Kevin Love was back to his top form for the Wolves, making a statement in the game by finishing with 23 points and 24 rebounds.
Luke Ridnour had 18 points and 5 assists for the night while going 8 of 13 from the field for the visiting team. DeMarcus Cousins finished with 20 points and 5 rebounds for the Kings, where as Tyreke Evans also finished with 20 points, 7 rebounds and 6 assists.
Sacramento started the game hot from three point range, and back to back to back shots from the distance early in the period had them leading 11-4. Back to back field goals by Malcolm Lee had the Wolves trailing 10-15, and the
Wolves later turned up their offence to go on an 8-2 run and cut the Kings lead to 21-20. Minnesota closed the period on a 7-0 run to take a 27-26 lead into the second period.
Both teams failed to score in the first two minutes of the second period, with Kirilenko scoring the first field goal of the period for the Wolves at the 9:56 mark. A putback dunk by Dante Cunningham gave the Wolves a 35-30 lead,
but Marcus Thornton replied with a three pointer to have the Kings trailing 33-35. The Wolves then scored the next seven points and took a 42-33 lead, but the Kings closed the period well and trailed by only 45-48 at the half time break.
Back to back field goals by Love in the third period put the Wolves up 59-51, and a three pointer by Love later in the period gave the Wolves full control of the game with a 65-53 advantage. The Kings fought hard but could only
manage a 5-2 run at the end of the period and trailed 67-75 going into the final period.
Evans scored the first five points of the final period for the Kings and had the Wolves lead down to three, but Alexey Shved responded with back to back three pointers. A dunk by Kirilenko later put the Wolves up 85-76, but the
Kings came back strongly and back to back field goals by Cousins had the Wolves lead down to four again. Pekovic then scored a layup with one minute left in the game and Cousins hook shot was blocked by Kirilenko on the next possession, giving the Wolves as
opportunity to escape with the victory. Love made a jump shot on the next possession and Cousins missed another field goal as the Wolves won 97-89 in the end.
Minnesota outrebounded the Kings 51-36 in the game, and shot much better from the foul line which ultimately proved to be the difference maker. Nikola Pekovic finished with 16 points and 8 rebounds, while Marcus Thornton and Isaiah
Thomas both came off the bench to score 12 points each for Sacramento.
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