Clippers Defeat T-Wolves 100-99 in OT (AP) Updated: 2005-11-07 09:40
LOS ANGELES - Cuttino Mobley had 27 points and a career-high 12 rebounds,
Elton Brand also scored 27 points, and the Los Angeles Clippers survived a
missed jumper by Kevin Garnett in the final seconds of overtime to beat the
Minnesota Timberwolves 100-99 Saturday night.
The Clippers are off to their first 3-0 start since 1985-86, when they began
their second season in Los Angeles with five straight victories. But they lost
12 of their next 13, finished 32-50 and missed the playoffs.
Garnett had 25 points and 15 rebounds for the Timberwolves, who had won 10 of
their previous 11 games against the Clippers. Former Clippers guard Troy Hudson
scored 21 points off the bench, 11 in the fourth quarter.
The Clippers, trying to end an eight-year postseason drought, are off to a
fresh start in their third season under coach Mike Dunleavy. So is Sam Cassell,
who spent a tumultuous 2004-05 season with the Timberwolves that was soured by a
contract dispute in training camp and a hamstring injury that limited him to a
career-low 59 games.
The 36-year-old point guard, playing for his seventh NBA team, averaged a
career-high 19.8 points and 7.3 assists two seasons ago to help lead Minnesota
to the Western Conference finals. Cassell averaged just 13.5 points last season
— his lowest in 10 years, and was traded to Los Angeles on Aug. 12 with a
conditional first-round draft pick for guards Marko Jaric and Lionel Chalmers.
The Timberwolves never led in regulation, but still managed to force overtime
on Garnett's 11-foot jumper with 7.3 seconds left. Cassell, who had 12 points
and seven assists in 44 minutes, tried to pull out the win after a timeout but
missed on a scoop shot at the fourth-quarter buzzer.
Jaric's layup gave Minnesota its first lead, 97-95, with 2:01 left in OT. But
Mobley tied it with a soaring dunk in a crowd, and Quinton Ross added an
18-footer for the Clippers after a missed layup at the other end by Wally
Szczerbiak. Hudson's layup made it a one-point game with 34 seconds left and the
Wolves got another chance when Mobley missed a 17-footer that would have iced it
for the Clippers.
|