It’s a first: Wolves win 103-102 at Utah, end 9-game road losing streak

Posted on April 4th, 2009 – 12:46 AM
By Jerry Zgoda

Sorry, lottery-odd watchers. Wolves win, Jazz lose, which means it looks the Wolves probably won’t get Utah’s first round pick this summer (good thing) and they’ll probably end up aimed at the sixth pick in this summer’s draft with their own.

OK, so the Wolves have won at EnergySolutions Arena before. They just haven’t done so since December 2005, which means it’s all new for these Timberwolves.

Rodney Carney called the victory, which ended a nine-game losing streak dating to Feb. 18 at Miami, “very satisfying…because I’ve never won here” after he matched his career high with 25 points, including five three pointers.

The Wolves won without Big Al, of course. Without Craig Smith or Randy Foye. With Kevin Love playing ill.

Mike Miller played his predictably efficient game, approaching a triple-double with a 14-point, 9-rebound, 8-assist night. Ryan Gomes matched Carney’s 25 points, his most since he scored 28 on March xx against New York.

This time, Mehmet Okur didn’t beat the Wolves with a last-second shot, as he had done twice already this season.

This season, Carney provided the punctuation, including an unlikely bucket with 94 seconds left that sucked the life right out of arguably the loudest arena in the league and perhaps out of a Jazz team that was playing its fourth game in five nights after playing a late TNT game in Denver Thursday.

The shot clock was at one when Gomes heaved up a three pointer simply aimed anywhere toward the rim from well beyond 30 feet. It hit front, bounced against the backboard and came down. Carney, off balanced, reached up and with his left hand tipped the ball back up and in.

It wasn’t the basket that put the Wolves ahead to stay — Carney’s subsequent three pointer with 32 seconds left did, at 103-100 — but it might as well have.

I asked Kevin McHale afterward which play in the team’s famous “thumb” series calls for the long-distance heave and off-balance, left-handed tip.

“That was all Rodney Carney,” he said. “That’s what that was.”

Wolves flew home happy after tonight’s game and face Denver Sunday night at Target Center. Only six left from here, sports fans!

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