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Saturday, Jan. 8 7:30pm ET
Brandon scores 28 to lead T-Wolves | |||||
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 GAME FLOW
AUBURN HILLS, Mich. (AP) -- The Minnesota Timberwolves didn't have any problems with 11 of the Detroit Pistons. The 12th one almost did them in. Grant Hill scored 40 points, but didn't get much help from his teammates as Minnesota beat Detroit 110-105 on Saturday night to snap the Pistons' six-game winning streak. "You're not going to stop Grant -- you have to try to contain him," Minnesota coach Flip Saunders said. "You just try to do that without opening too many things up for their other players." Terrell Brandon had 28 points and Kevin Garnett added 22 points and 14 rebounds for Minnesota, which extended its own winning streak to four games. The Timberwolves improved to 16-14 -- the first time they have been two games over .500 since they were 7-5. "Tonight was a real gutsy performance," said Saunders, who has the flu. "It wasn't pretty down the stretch, but we made enough plays to win the game." Sam Mitchell added a season-high 20 points for Minnesota. "All that matters is the win," Garnett said. "We cut down on their transition points, and that's how they beat a lot of people. We saw that on the films." Hill became the first Pistons player to score 30 or more in four straight games since Joe Dumars in 1992-93. Hill had consecutive 42-point performances in Orlando and Atlanta and 31 against Milwaukee on Thursday night. "The only thing I'll probably remember about this stretch is that we lost the last game," he said. "Basketball is a very humbling game -- a few hours ago, we were on top of the world. Now we have our heads down. We need to get that first feeling back again." Jerry Stackhouse (16) and Christian Laettner (11) were the only other Pistons to reach double figures, and they combined to hit just 8-of-24 shots. "They played like we've been playing lately," Pistons coach Alvin Gentry said. "We just struggled putting the ball into the basket tonight. That happens some of the time." The Timberwolves led 55-51 at the half, and quickly increased the margin to 10 at 65-55. They eventually led by as many as 12, but couldn't stop Hill. He had 13 points in the quarter, including seven in a 9-1 run that pulled the Pistons within two at 78-76 at the end of the period. The Timberwolves used a 10-0 run to take a 90-80 lead with 7:35 to go. Mitchell had five of the points, including his second 3-pointer of the season. But the Pistons rallied, scoring five straight points to pull with five with 1:52 to go. Tom Hammonds helped Detroit by missing two free throws, and Lindsey Hunter banked in a jumper to make it a three-point game. Brandon then missed, giving the Pistons a chance to tie, but Jerome Williams dropped a pass and fouled Hammonds. Hammonds missed both free throws, but Anthony Peeler grabbed the rebound. This time, Detroit fouled Brandon, and he made both, making it 103-98 with 29.3 seconds left. Stackhouse was fouled on a 3-point attempt, but missed two of the three free throws, ending Detroit's hopes. In all, Detroit missed 15 of 43 free throws, including 10 in the second half"I'm really disappointed," said Stackhouse. "I guess the whole team needs to work on the basics. We have to start playing like we did during the winning streak again." Game notesDetroit was going for its first seven-game winning streak since the 1991-92 season. ... The game was the 800th of Mitchell's career. ... Four Timberwolves -- Garnett, Malik Sealy, Radoslav Nesterovic and Joe Smith -- fouled out, setting a team record. | ALSO SEE NBA Scoreboard Minnesota Clubhouse Detroit Clubhouse RECAPS Minnesota 110 Detroit 105
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