Joe Johnson scored 25 points, Ivan Johnson hit the clinching
free throws with 4.6 seconds remaining and the Atlanta Hawks
rallied from from 18 points down to beat the Minnesota Timberwolves
93-91 on Saturday night.

Kevin Love missed a potential game-tying jump shot at the
buzzer, but finished with 30 points and 13 rebounds for Minnesota,
which was trying to win consecutive road games for the first time
since last Feb. 7-8 at New Orleans and Houston. The Timberwolves
were coming off a seven-point victory Friday against the
Hornets.

Jeff Teague added 20 points and 10 assists for the Hawks, who
overcame a season-high 20 turnovers to win their second straight
game after losing Al Horford to a torn pectoral muscle that will
sideline the starting center for three to four months.

Ricky Rubio had 18 points and 12 assists for Minnesota. With
3:40 left in the third quarter, Rubio’s 12-foot runner from the
left baseline gave the Timberwolves the game’s biggest lead at
18.

But Atlanta went on a 23-2 run that was capped by Teague’s 3
with 8:48 remaining, putting the Hawks up 76-73 and giving them a
lead for the first time since the game’s first minute.

Ivan Johnson, playing a season-high 25 minutes with Horford out,
finished with 10 points and 11 rebounds.

Love scored 30 points for the 12th time in his career and
finished with a double-double for an NBA-leading 12th time.

NOTES: Hawks F Marvin Williams returned to the lineup and had
eight points and eight rebounds in 19 minutes. Williams missed the
last three games with a sprained left ankle. … Minnesota F
Michael Beasley (right foot sprain) and reserve G Jose Barea (left
ankle) did not make the two game road trip. … Hawks reserve G
Tracy McGrady missed his third straight game with back spasms.

Stats that stand out from the New Orleans Hornets 87-80 loss to the Minnesota Timberwolves Friday night.

1. 37. Timberwolves first-half points, fewest by a Hornets’ opponent this season.

2. 0. Field goals made by Hornets forward Chris Kaman in 10 attempts.

3. 19. Hornets’ season-high fast break points, but only six of those in the final three quarters.

4. 7 and 4. Career high in points and rebounds by Hornets forward Gustavo Ayon.

5. 17. Points scored by Timberwolves forward Kevin Love in the third quarter.

+/- rating for every Hornet player

Ayon +5

Summers +3

Landry +1

Belinelli 0

Jack -3

Kaman -3

Aminu -5

Smith -7

C. Johnson -8

Vasquez -8

Okafor -10

FIRST QUARTER BREAKDOWN

Quarter score: Hornets 21, Timberwolves 16

Hornets points in the paint: 18.

Timberwolves points in the paint: four.

Hornets second chance points: four.

Timberwolves second chance points: two.

Hornets fast-break points: 13.

Timberwolves fast-break points: 0.

Hornets biggest lead: eight.

Timberwolves biggest lead: 0.

Times tied: 0.

Hornets leading scorer: DaJuan Summers, seven.

Timberwolves leading scorer: Wesley Johnson, seven.

SECOND QUARTER BREAKDOWN

Quarter score: Timberwolves 21, Hornets 17.

Hornets points in the paint: eight.

Timberwolves points in the paint: two.

Hornets second chance points: four.

Timberwolves second chance points: four.

Hornets fast-break points: one.

Timberwolves fast-break points: three.

Hornets biggest lead: seven.

Timberwolves biggest lead: 0.

Times tied: 0.

Hornets leading scorer: Emeka Okafor, eight.

Timberwolves leading scorer: Luke Ridnour, eight.

THIRD QUARTER BREAKDOWN

Quarter score: Timberwolves 26, Hornets 13.

Hornets points in the paint: six.

Timberwolves points in the paint: six.

Hornets second chance points: eight.

Timberwolves second chance points: two.

Hornets fast-break points: 0.

Timberwolves fast-break points: two.

Hornets biggest lead: one.

Timberwolves biggest lead: 14.

Times tied: 0.

Hornets leading scorer: Okafor, four.

Timberwolves leading scorer: Kevin Love, 17.

FOURTH QUARTER BREAKDOWN

Quarter score: Hornets 29, Timberwolves 24.

Hornets points in the paint: 10.

Timberwolves points in the paints: two.

Hornets second chance points: six.

Timberwolves second chance points: six.

Hornets fast-break points: five.

Timberwolves fast-break points: 0.

Hornets biggest lead: 0.

Timberwolves biggest lead: 12.

Times tied: three.

Hornets leading scorer: Marco Belinelli, 12.

Timberwolves leading scorer: Love, 11.

NEW ORLEANS, Louisiana — Kevin Love scored 34 points, Ricky Rubio hit the tiebreaking free throws in his first career start, and the Minnesota Timberwolves beat the New Orleans Hornets 87-80 on Friday night.

Rubio finished with 12 points and nine assists. Love had 17 points in the third quarter and also grabbed 15 rebounds for his 11th consecutive double-double. The Timberwolves finished 33 of 38 from the foul line and Love sank his first 17 before missing one in the last minute.

Marco Belinelli scored a season-high 20 points for the Hornets, who rallied from a 14-point deficit to the tie the score three times in the fourth quarter before losing for the eighth time in nine games and their fifth in a row at home. Emeka Okafor contributed 16 points and 14 rebounds. Jarrett Jack had eight points and nine assists.

New Orleans pulled into its final tie at 78 on a 3-pointer by Belinelli with a little more than 2 minutes left, seconds after Hornets rookie Gustavo Ayon blocked a layup attempt by Wayne Ellington. As the Timberwolves screamed for goaltending, Belinelli set up behind the arc, and Jack found him for the open shot.

Rubio responded with two free throws to put Minnesota ahead 82-80. After Ayon missed a running bank shot, Rubio hit two more foul shots. Love finished off the Hornets by sinking two free throws and grabbing an air ball from Belinelli with 29 seconds left.

Minnesota’s big run started when the Timberwolves scored the last five points of the first half. Luke Ridnour sank a long-range 3-pointer with 1.4 seconds left to close the gap to 38-37.

Love scored on Minnesota’s first three possessions of the second half, breaking out of a slump in which he had hit on 9 of 40 shots in his past 10 quarters. He extended the Timberwolves’ advantage to 63-49 with a basket near the end of third quarter.

Belinelli hit two 3-pointers and Ayon scored five points — surpassing his season high — as the Hornets came back in the fourth.

The struggling teams matched each other missed shot for missed shot in an ugly first half. Minnesota went 12 of 37 from the field (32 percent), while New Orleans hit 17 of 45 (38 percent), taking a 38-37 lead.

New Orleans guard Greivis Vasquez floated the ball about a foot past the rim on a runner from the side. Ridnour hit the side of the backboard with a bad-angle attempt from the baseline, drawing a lingering grimace from coach Rick Adelman.

Love sank just one of his six attempts. The Hornets’ Chris Kaman went 0 for 7 on his way to an 0-for-10 night.

The Timberwolves were fortunate to be down only five at the end of the first quarter. They committed seven turnovers, leading to 13 Hornets fast-break points in the first 7:30, one below their season high for a game. Other than Wes Johnson, no Minnesota player hit a shot from the field in the first nine minutes.

New Orleans guard Eric Gordon missed his fifth consecutive game with a sore knee, and forward Trevor Ariza missed his sixth game in a row with a strained groin.

In theory, the New Orleans Hornets’ game plan to neutralize Minnesota Timberwolves power forward Kevin Love worked nicely for a half. But Love proved to be unstoppable in the third quarter, scoring 17 points, including the first five of the quarter that sparked a 15-2 Minnesota run, and the Timberwolves withstood a fourth-quarter Hornets surge and beat New Orleans 87-80 in front of 14,295 Friday night in the New Orleans Arena.

Love finished with 34 points and 15 rebounds, and Minnesota forced the Hornets to unravel after a respectable first half of basketball. Love shot 18 free throws, making 17. The Hornets attempted just 16. Minnesota was 33-of-38 at the free-throw line; New Orleans was 8-of-16.

Down by as many as 12 in the second half, the Hornets tied the score at 78 with 2:01 to go. But the T-Wolves went on a 6-0 run during the next 1:12 to seal the victory.

The plan to defend Love, the Timberwolves’ leading scorer, rebounder and most dangerous weapon, was to shadow him around the offensive end, keep a body on him, and generally attempt to disrupt his rhythm.

“You try to make it tough on him,” Hornets Coach Monty Williams said. “You want to keep a body on him at all times, obviously. You’ve got to contest his shots out to 3-point land. But again, I don’t think you necessarily focus on his numbers as far as the principles involved.

“Keeping a body on him is paramount. And you’ve got to make him work on the offensive end. He’s got to guard. You want to try to post him up, put him in positions where he has to play some defense. But he’s an elite player, and you have to respect him as such.”

Love looked at four different defenders in the first half, starting with Okafor, who was relieved by Jason Smith with 3:40 to go in the first quarter, then Carl Landry with 39.9 seconds to go in the first, then Al-Farouq Aminu at the outset of the second.

Even Gustavo Ayon and Jarrett Jack took turns trying to stop Love in the second half, specifically in the fourth quarter.

To make Love work on the other end, Okafor was went 6-of-11 from the outside in the first half for 12 points.

It was evident the plan was working. Until the third.

“He’s definitely a difficult matchup,” said Smith, returning after missing three games because of the death of his grandmother. “He’s worked on his game. He’s shooting a lot of 3s, which really spaces out the floor because he’s either at the 3-point line or he’s under the basket tipping his rebounds.

“You’ve got to stay on your horse. You’ve got to stay attentive to detail and be aware of where he is at all times.”

Defensively, the Hornets were doing a nice job of forcing a lot of long-range shots by the Timberwolves, who weren’t knocking down that many, hitting just 32 percent in the first half.

But as out of sync as Love was in the first half, he scored the first five points of the third quarter, giving the T-Wolves their first lead on a jumper to open the third, 39-38, and virtually single-handedly turned the momentum of the game around, as Minnesota opened the second half on a 9-0 run.

Williams changed his starting lineup for the game, inserting DaJuan Summers at small forward in place of Aminu, and it immediately paid dividends. Summers had nine first-half points and a steal that started a New Orleans fastbreak. The Hornets tied a season high with 14 fast-break points in the first half.

“Just to shake it up a bit until Trevor gets back,” Williams said of the decision to start Summers, who on Monday returned to action after being sidelined during training camp by a hyperextended right knee. “Al-Farouq is a guy who’s learning how to play and certainly has to get better in a number of areas, and DaJuan as well. He just has more experience.

“We’re looking for a lineup that can click a little bit. It’s not that Al-Farouq did anything wrong in games. Obviously he made some mistakes because he’s 21 years old. But at the same time, a lot of guys have. We don’t make changes to demote guys. We make changes we feel will be better for the team.”

To that end, Minnesota Coach Rick Adelman, who previously coached the Houston Rockets and saw the Hornets four times a year in the Southwest Division, was still gathering a working knowledge of just what kind of team New Orleans was putting on the court.

“They’ve got good size,” Adelman said. “They’ve got some good players. Obviously having (Eric) Gordon get hurt right away really hurts them. He probably would have been their leading scorer. But Kaman is a solid player up front.

“They’ve been kind of like us in some ways in that they’ve played some good teams and haven’t been able to get a lot of wins. Had a great win in Denver (Monday night), which helps. But I think it’ll probably be down the line when they get Gordon back, then you can decide what they have at that point.”

The T-Wolves, however, knew what they had, especially in Love.

“He is,” Smith said, “Mr. Double-double.”

•••••••

Jimmy Smith can be reached at jsmith@timespicayune.com or 504.826.3814.

The New Orleans Hornets host the Minnesota Timberwolves tonight at 7 at the New Orleans Arena. The game will be televised on CST and broadcast on 106.1-FM and 830-AM (in Spanish).

Notable: This is the first meeting of the season between the teams, and Hornets fans are taking a particular interest in the Timberwolves’ fortunes, because New Orleans owns Minnesota’s first-round pick in the next draft. … T-Wolves guard Ricky Rubio has been compared to Pistol Pete Maravich, and this will be the first opportunity to see, up close, if those comparisons are valid. … Minnesota F Michael Beasley has missed the past three games with a foot sprain. … G J.J. Barea, part of the Mavericks’ NBA championship team last season, is back with the T-Wolves after missing four games with a strained left hamstring. … Minnesota is 3-7 and hasn’t played since Tuesday, a loss to the Chicago Bulls. … The teams played just three times last season, and the T-Wolves won two, including the matchup at the New Orleans Arena. The teams meet again just three times this season.

Timberwolves

Player Pos. Ht. Wt. PPG

Wes Johnson F 6-7 215 4.8

Kevin Love F 6-10 250 23.6

Darko Milicic C 7-0 275 5.9

Wayne Ellington G 6-7 200 4.5

Luke Ridnour G 6-2 175 12.3

Reserves: R. Rubio, G, 10.2; J. Barea, G, 11.4; A. Tolliver, F, 5.4; A. Randolph, F, 7.8; D. Williams, F, 8.7.

Hornets

Player Pos. Ht. Wt. PPG

Al-Farouq Aminu F 6-9 215 4.8

Chris Kaman F 7-0 265 11.7

Emeka Okafor C 6-10 255 8.2

Marco Belinelli G 6-5 195 9.3

Jarrett Jack G 6-3 197 14.9

Reserves: C. Landry, F, 15.2; D. Summers, F, 7.0; G. Vasquez, G, 5.5; C. Johnson, G, 2.1; G. Ayon, F, 1.5; J. Smith, F, 7.0; T. Johnson, G, 1.8.

MINNEAPOLIS – Michael Beasley and public relations firm S&S Associates have ended their working relationship, just three weeks after the Minnesota Timberwolves forward hired the company to elevate his image.

”Please be advised that S&S Associates is no longer affiliated with Michael Beasley,” owner Tonya Payton said in a statement issued Wednesday. “I would like to personally thank each and every one that I have worked with on this project. All of you have been extremely generous and helpful and made my task so much easier.”

Wednesday afternoon, Beasley’s website http://www.michaelbeasley8.com was no longer working.

Michael Beasley has had a rough 2011:

March 6: Beasley Kicked Out of West End Movie Theater
June 26: Beasley Pulled Over, Ticketed for Marijuana
Aug. 5: Beasley Pushes Fan at NY Exhibition Game (NBC Sports)
Oct. 21: Spotty Turnout, Few Stars at Beasley Charity Game
Oct. 26: Beasley Lawsuit Alleges Improper Benefits (Washington Post)

So while the NBA remains locked out, it’s back to the drawing board for the Michael Beasley image campaign.
 

Free-agent point guard Jamaal Tinsley(notes) last played in the NBA in the 2009-10 season for the Minnesota Timberwolves, where he averaged 3.5 points, 2.8 assists, 1.7 rebounds and 15:30 minutes per game, all well below his career averages of 9.8 points, 6.6 assists, 3.3 rebounds and 28:53 minutes.

Now the 33-year-old wants to be back in the NBA and is willing to play some minor-league ball to get there. Yahoo! Sports’ Marc J. Spears reports that the 33-year-old Tinsley, who was selected in the first round of the 2007 draft by the Memphis Grizzlies out of Iowa State, is putting his name in for a very different draft: the D-League. “Tinsley has sent in the needed paperwork to enter Thursday’s NBA Development League draft,” Spears reports.

The Brooklyn native spent the large majority of his career playing for the Indiana Pacers.

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Source: Yahoo! Sports

Qualifier: players will be classified under one position even if they played at more than one.

Kevin Garnett(notes):

Future Hall of Famer Kevin Garnett owns virtually every Minnesota Timberwolves franchise record. Garnett led the Timberwolves to all of their success as a franchise from his 1995-96 rookie season through his trade to the Boston Celtics in 2007. He carried the team to each of its eight playoffs as well as its two playoff series wins in 2004. The one-time MVP and Defensive Player of the Year owns seven of the top nine single-season point totals and eight of the top nine rebound totals in team history. Through 16 seasons, Garnett ranks in the NBA’s all-time top 25 in points (23,323), rebounds (12,819), steals (1,608) and blocks (1,847). His 14 All-Star appearances tie him for the third most by any player.

Kevin Love(notes):

One of the most tenacious rebounders in the NBA today, 2011 All-Star power forward Kevin Love leads the current Timberwolves roster. After earning All-Rookie honors in 2008-09, Love jumped forward with his first double-double year in 2009-10 despite coming off the bench. His 2010-11 season set a new standard when he averaged 20.2 points and a franchise record 15.2 rebounds per game to win the Most Improved Player award. On the offensive end, he bangs in the post and possesses a soft touch from three-point land and on both ends of the floor he owns every loose ball. Through just three seasons, he already ranks third in Wolves franchise history with 2,504 rebounds.

Al Jefferson(notes):

Current Utah Jazz big man Al Jefferson played three strong seasons with the Timberwolves from 2007 to 2010. Jefferson served as the centerpiece of the Garnett trade and he responded by anchoring the Wolves’ frontcourt with three All-Star-caliber years. Over 208 games, he averaged 20.1 points, 10.4 rebounds and 1.4 blocks for some otherwise weak Timberwolves teams.

Tom Gugliotta:

One-time All-Star power forward Tom Gugliotta was a big part of the Timberwolves’ rise to relevance in the mid-1990s. Gugliotta was a skilled big man who could pass, handle the ball and shoot from the perimeter. Spending the prime of his career in Minnesota, Gugliotta registered 18.2 points, 8.5 rebounds and 3.8 assists as the Wolves evolved into a playoff team. For his career as a whole, he racked up 9,895 points and 5,589 rebounds in 763 NBA games.

Christian Laettner:

Former All-Star Christian Laettner started his NBA career with the Minnesota Timberwolves in 1992. Laettner joined Minnesota as the third overall pick in the 1992 draft and proceeded to play three-plus years of his best basketball there. He maintained averages of 17.2 points, 8.1 rebounds and 3.2 assists in 276 games with the Timberwolves. In 2005, Laettner retired with 11,121 points over 13 NBA seasons.

Sources:

Minnesota Timberwolves Franchise Index, Basketball-Reference.com

More from this contributor:

Minnesota Timberwolves top five small forwards

Minnesota Timberwolves top five shooting guards

Minnesota Timberwolves top five point guards

Milwaukee Bucks top five power forwards

Indiana Pacers top five centers

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Read more: Wes Johnson, Basketball, Minnesota Timberwolves, NBA Lockout, Syracuse, Local Pro, NBA

Wes Johnson was at the Melo Center on Tuesday, keeping in shape and maybe tuning up for the Legends game at Friday’s Midnight Madness.

But there’s a certain anxiety in the former Orange basketball star, he wants the NBA season to get going, and soon.

Wes was a rookie for the Minnesota Timberwolves last season averaging 9 points per contest, a good mark for a rookie. One would expect those numbers to go up with more experience, but that season of course, is in jeopardy.

NBA Commissioner David Stern announced the cancellation of the first two weeks of the season have been cancelled, and Johnson is making the most of that time not just by keeping in shape but by taking classes at SU to try and finish up his degree as well.

Johnson spoke exclusively with me, and also says the players’ proposals keep getting rejected and that they’re just “playing it by ear” for the moment. He says all the players can do is make the most of it, and by going back to class, Wes is definitely walking the talk.