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 His team had just won four of five games on the season's longest
road trip — and six of its last seven overall — before it arrived
home to begin a portion of its schedule that presumably was more
favorable for a team chasing a distant playoff spot in the West.
But Adelman knows better, even if his Wolves played a Knicks team
that had lost seven consecutive games and 10 of its last 11.
"Long road trip, 11-12 days, the first one is always the one you
worry about the most," Adelman said. "I don't care what their record
was or how many losses they had in a row. When you have (Carmelo)
Anthony, (Amare) Stoudemire, J.R. Smith, I mean you let them get
going and it's really tough."
The Wolves did indeed let the Knicks get going, to a first-half
start that produced leads of 16-5, 38-22 and 44-28 before they made
it a game with a 24-13 burst that ended the third quarter.
That got them within 88-86 with a quarter still to play, but Adelman
sent starters Kevin Love and Ricky Rubio to the bench for a rest and
left only starting center Nikola Pekovic on the floor. Meanwhile,
New York coach Mike Woodson left starters Anthony, Stoudemire and
Raymond Felton on the floor and the Knicks essentially won the game
with a 15-2 run that opened the fourth quarter.
"Completely different teams from the way we were playing on the road
to the way we were playing tonight," said Wolves backup point guard
J.J. Barea, whose team won at Utah, Phoenix, Sacramento and Denver
and lost only at Portland on that five-game trip.
Anthony scored 33 points — even if he needed 27 field-goal attempts
to do so — and 20 of them came in the first half for a team whose
only victory since Feb. 7 was a win at New Orleans just after
All-Star break. He opened and closed that decisive 15-2 run by
scoring a field goal.
"It's just good to get off this slide," Woodson said. "I told them
this morning that until someone tells us that we aren't going to
make the playoffs and we don't have a shot at it, we have to keep
playing. Stranger things have happened. We have 21 games left and we
have to win them all. That's just the way I look at it."
The Knicks now are 22-40 while the Wolves fell back to .500 at 30-30
after getting above it with Monday's victory at Denver for the first
time since late January.
"We are players who have been in this league for a long time;
between us we have 12, 13 All-Star appearances and Defensive Player
of the Year," Stoudemire said. "So we know how to play the game of
basketball. It's just a matter of time until we gel and figure it
out. So far we are doing it."
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Forward Kevin Love scored 19 points — but just one point after
halftime — for the Timberwolves, who failed to gain ground on
Dallas and Memphis in the chase for that final playoff spot. Both
teams lost as well on Wednesday and the Wolves now are five games
behind Phoenix for that eighth and final spot.
"Other teams are losing and we're behind them, but we can't give in
and say, `Well, this is a killer.' I know everybody's going to say
that, you shouldn't lose to the Knicks, it's a killer. Well, if we
go out and beat Dallas or San Antonio. ... We just have to go out
and beat Detroit (Friday). We lost this game. It's not going to be
perfect. I don't worry about this is really damaging, I worry about
the way we played, I worry about the way we're going to play
Detroit. That's what I worry about."
Love failed to reach 20 points for the first time since Jan. 25
against Portland. He had scored 20 or more in 14 consecutive games
and had reached 30 points in 11 of his last 14 starts before
Wednesday's game.
"He isn't going to have 35 points every game, let's be realistic,"
Adelman said. "He is going to have some nights where they're just
going to stay with him all the way. ... It's just one of those
games. He'll bounce back from it."
NOTES: Wolves F Kevin Love averaged 34 points and 14 rebounds a game
in February, but lost out to Los Angeles Clippers F Blake Griffin
when the NBA announced its Player of the Month award on Wednesday.
"He (Love) just had a terrific month," Wolves coach Rick Adelman
said. "You can't say enough about the month he had." ... Rookie F
Robbie Hummel and injured backup C Ronny Turiaf were the Wolves'
inactive players Wednesday while injured F Kenyon Martin and C
Andrea Bargnani were the Knicks' inactives. ... Knicks backup C Cole
Aldrich grew up in nearby Bloomington, Minn., a suburb of
Minneapolis. ... The Wolves allowed 83 points in two quarters after
surrendering 45 in the fourth quarter of Monday's victory at Denver
and Wednesday's 38-point first quarter against the Knicks. ... Love
entered the game leading the NBA in double-doubles (50), 20/10 games
(39, including his last 13 consecutively) and 30/10 games (18).
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