On A Roll
Minneapolis,Mn – The Minnesota Timberwolves began their recent run with wins over some struggling opponents, but have since knocked off two of the NBA’s better teams.
They’ll look to continue their surprising turnaround on Sunday when they face the stumbling Chicago Bulls for the second time this month.
Oddsmakers from online sports book Sportsbook.com have made the Timberwolves -5 point spread favorites for Tuesday’s game against the Bulls. Current NBA Public Betting Information shows that 53% of more than 186 bets for this game have been placed on the Timberwolves -5.
Since losing 13 straight from Nov. 29-Dec. 23, Minnesota has gone 10-4. It’s been particularly strong since the beginning of January, winning eight of its last 10.
The Timberwolves (14-27) opened this month with a five-game winning streak that included a 102-92 victory over the Bulls (18-26) in Chicago on Jan. 3. All five of those wins came against teams with losing records.
The Timberwolves, though, have since beaten a pair of the league’s stronger teams, defeating the Phoenix Suns 105-103 on Jan. 16 and New Orleans Hornets 116-108 on Friday for their fifth win in their last six games at the Target Center.
Minnesota had seven players score in double figures against the Hornets and shot 51.3 percent from the field, going 10-of-21 from 3-point range. Al Jefferson and Randy Foye each scored 24 points with Jefferson adding 14 rebounds.
Foye is averaging 20.8 points in the last 10 games after scoring 14.4 in the previous 31. He was 4-of-8 from 3-point range on Friday and also had eight assists.
"He’s a great, great young man, and like I’ve said before, we’ve been blessed in this organization to have a lot of really good people, and he’s one of them," coach Kevin McHale told the Timberwolves’ official Web site.
Foye had a team-high 21 points when Minnesota beat Chicago earlier this month. The Bulls were missing Kirk Hinrich, Luol Deng and Drew Gooden because of injuries, but all three have since returned to the lineup – although Gooden has missed the last two games because of a strained groin.
Chicago, though, hasn’t played well regardless of who is on the court.
The Bulls have lost 12 of their last 17, including a season-high four straight after falling 114-94 to Toronto at home on Friday. Chicago hasn’t dropped five in a row since a six-game skid from Nov. 14-24, 2006.
Ben Gordon had 19 points while Hinrich added 17 and seven assists in Friday’s game, which was tied at 54 at the half before Toronto began the third quarter on a 13-1 run.
Chicago’s previous three losses had been by a total of 12 points.
"I thought our energy to start the third quarter was not good," coach Vinny Del Negro said. "We are not good enough to do that. We have to play with high energy and play together."
Del Negro and Gordon reportedly got into an argument Thursday after Gordon was fined for being late to team flights. Gordon’s averaging a team-leading 20.0 points per game, but just 13.8 in the last six contests.
Chicago has lost nine of its last 10 visits to Minnesota, scoring 67 points in its last game there on Jan. 30. The Bulls have dropped 15 of 19 overall meetings since the start of the 1999-2000 season.
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Posted: 1/25/09 3:00AM ET