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Wednesday, Dec. 22 8:30pm ET
Garnett scores 22 points in homecoming | |||||
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RECAP
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BOX SCORE
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 GAME FLOW
CHICAGO (AP) -- With a long, ugly losing streak still fresh in their minds, the last thing the Minnesota Timberwolves want is a reputation as a soft team. So when Chicago scraped together a run to end the first half, the Timberwolves responded with a ferociousness the likes of which even the Bulls haven't seen much this year. Kevin Garnett scored 14 of his 22 points in the third quarter and the Timberwolves outscored the Bulls 36-16 on their way to a 106-86 victory Wednesday night. It was the third win in a row for the Timberwolves, who started the month 0-8, and their first win ever at the United Center. "I think the lesson from the losing streak is that whenever we have a winning streak, we can't get complacent. We have to come out with the same intensity," Garnett said. "We came out and did what we were supposed to do, win the game." Garnett, who played at Chicago's Farragut Academy his senior year, also had 13 rebounds. Malik Sealy had 19 points on 8-of-10 shooting, Terrell Brandon added 16 and Joe Smith came off the bench to score 18. The Bulls, who had lost their three previous games by a total of 21 points, were led by Elton Brand's 17 points and eight rebounds. Ron Artest and Kornel David scored 14 and Corey Benjamin and Rusty LaRue added 13 each. "They played terrific in the third quarter. Maybe as well as anyone has played against us in a stretch," Bulls coach Tim Floyd said. "We kind of hit a wall." This one was almost too easy for the Timberwolves. The Bulls are nowhere close to the team that once ruled the NBA, and beat up as they are right now they'd have a tough time even ruling a playground. Six players were on the bench in street clothes, including Toni Kukoc. The Bulls managed to make a game of it with that same ragtag lineup Monday night, but they were out of gas by the time the Timberwolves came to town. Garnett was simply too big and too strong inside, flying through the lane for a dunk or muscling his way underneath the basket for a layup. And when Garnett wasn't abusing people inside, Sealy and Brandon took over. Sealy was 5-of-6 in the first half, with all but one of those shots coming on the perimeter. "Our defense (Monday) was better," LaRue said. "We let way too much penetration into the middle of the floor and then had to help and gave up easy jump shots." Still, the Bulls did manage to hang in there for awhile. After trailing by as much as 13 in the first quarter, the Bulls went on runs of 8-2 and 7-0 to cut Minnesota's lead to 47-41 at halftime. "We can be labeled as a team that'll let you back in the game and that's the worst label you want to have," Sealy said. "They made a run at the end of the first half and cut into the lead, so we came out and wanted to make a concerted effort to establish ourselves offensively." Did they ever. The Bulls missed four shots and turned the ball over three times in the first 2½ minutes of the third quarter. The Timberwolves, meanwhile, were putting on an offensive clinic. Brandon opened the third quarter with a fast-break layup, Sealy dunked, Wally Szczerbiak hit a 15-foot jumper and Sealy hit a jumper of his own to give Minnesota a 55-41 lead. The Timberwolves extended their lead to 29 points twice in the fourth quarter, and it was only the redemption of garbage time that kept the game from being a total blowout. "We've got that one guy, No. 21, with a killer instinct," Minnesota coach Flip Saunders said of Garnett. "Playing back in Chicago was big for him, especially never having had a win here before." Game notesBulls coach Tim Floyd was whistled for a technical in the third quarter for arguing a call with referee Joe Crawford. It was Floyd's second technical this season. ... Garnett got some of the loudest cheers of the night when he was introduced. ... The Bulls and Timberwolves were 0-for-8 in the first half _ 3-pointers, that is. Minnesota was 0-for-2 from long range while Chicago was 0-for-6. Garnett and Chris Anstey made the only two 3-pointers of the game. | ALSO SEE NBA Scoreboard Minnesota Clubhouse Chicago Clubhouse RECAPS Boston 98 Atlanta 81
Minnesota 106
LA Clippers 103
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