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Latrell Sprewell had his own mind-set in the waning seconds of Minnesota's game Monday night, and it paid off when the Timberwolves outlasted the Houston Rockets 94-88.
In spite of a timeout in which Minnesota coach Flip Saunders drew up a play, Sprewell knew what he was going to do in the final seconds -- go to Kevin Garnett any way he could.
He did that, and Garnett hit a 10-foot fadeaway jumper with 18 seconds remaining to help give Minnesota its last lead. Garnett scored six of his 27 points in the last two minutes, and Sam Cassell added 24 points as the Timberwolves ended a four-game losing streak in Houston that dated back to a 90-88 victory on Nov. 3, 2001.
``Flip was saying do this and do that,'' Sprewell said. ``I just told Kevin to get in the box and do your thing.
``Get the ball to KG It's as simple as that. I told him to hold off his defender and I was coming to him and then it was up to him.''
Garnett liked Sprewell's plan.
``Sometimes we like to simplify things,'' Garnett said. ``We had to figure out
which side Flip wanted us to play from but we like to simplify it after that.
``We wanted to have a little movement on that play. It's designed to get the defense to shift. I knew I needed to have more lift to get it over (Houston's) Yao (Ming). I made some costly mistakes so at the end I was aggressive.''
Saunders will take the play.
``KG really took the game over in that final stretch,'' Saunders said. ``Sprewell made a good pass and KG made a quick move.''
The Rockets still liked the effort by Maurice Taylor on Garnett.
``I thought he competed hard,'' coach Jeff Van Gundy said of Taylor. ``Garnett is great. He came out and got some free throws at the end and split a double team, but Mo was playing him hard.
``This would have been a huge win. Huge. We outrebounded them and doubled their points in the paint. It came down to us not making a spot-up shot but they are a heck of a team.''
AP - Mar 29, 11:20 pm EST
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Yao Ming missed a shot just inside the top of the circle with 10 seconds left,
and Sprewell hit two free throws with 8 seconds remaining to wrap it up.
``Steve drove it in and made a great pass to Yao,'' Taylor said of Yao's shot. ``Yao had the ball just the way we drew it up. If he took that shot 200 times, he would make it 99 percent of the time. We played hard and did the things we needed to do to win.''
``It came down to one shot and it was a shot he usually makes.''
Cassell hit two more free throws with one second to play for the final score.
After a back-and-forth third period, Minnesota scored nine straight points, including the last six by Wally Szczerbiak, to take a 79-70 lead with 6:53 remaining.
But Houston scored 10 straight points to regain the lead at 80-79 with 3:20 to play. Baskets by Taylor and Yao made it 84-81 with 2:18 to play.
A 9-2 run gave Minnesota a 22-12 lead with 3:33 to play the first quarter. Garnett scored 10 and Cassell eight in the period as the Timberwolves led 28-20 to start the second quarter.
Yao and Taylor scored four points each in a 9-0 run that gave Houston its first lead of the night at 36-35 with 5:20 left in the first half. The lead changed hands three more times before Houston took a 43-42 edge into the break.
When Francis hit one of two free throws to give Houston a 65-64 lead with 2:21 to play in the third quarter, all five Houston starters had 12 points apiece. Francis had the Rockets' final four points of the period to bring themto a 68-68 tie after three.
Notes
After beating Milwaukee on Sunday, the Rockets are 8-8 on the first night of back-to-back games and 11-5 on the second nights, including 4-1 on second nights played at home. ... The victory allowed Minnesota to match last season's win total of 51. ... The Timberwolves' 24-14 record is the best roadmark in the Western Conference.