Wolves record: 18-43
That was certainly the case Friday, when Kobe Bryant scored 23 points, Pau Gasol added 21 and the Lakers beat the slumping Minnesota Timberwolves 110-90 to become the first NBA team to reach 50 victories.
Robyn Norwood/Pioneer Press on the team’s eighth consecutive loss:
They fell behind by five after the first quarter and 11 at halftime. They cut the lead to four after a three-point play by Love with about 10 1/2 minutes left in the third, but the Lakers stretched the lead to 21 before the end of the quarter after consecutive three-pointers by Kobe Bryant and a put-back by Josh Powell…
Ryan Gomes scored 20 for the Timberwolves, who remain stuck on 18 victories. Telfair added 18, Love had 18 points and 14 rebounds and Shelden Williams had his most productive game since joining the team, scoring 14.
“The first half we hung around a little, but we were missing shots,” McHale said. “We’ve just got to try to find a way with this group of guys to find a way to compete.”
0 Points by Mike Miller on 0-for-4 shooting in 33 minutes. He did have a team-high nine assists, five rebounds and a block.
Randy Foye sat at his Staples Center locker a few minutes ago in jeans and a blue shirt, unable to play because of a hip injnury in tonight’s game against a Lakers team looking for its 50th victory of the season.
Foye hurt his left hip in practice Wednesday when Kevin Love tried to take a charge and Foye felt into him, and fell wrong on that hip.
Afterward, McHale lamented his team’s inability to make shots or produce more than four Lakers’ turnovers, but Los Angeles coach Phil Jackson gave the Wolves one of his typical back-handed compliments by commenting on how he thought his team might have “just played down to the level of our competition” with the Wolves missing Foye and Al Jefferson, but didn’t.
“We know it will get better,” Wolves rookie Kevin Love said after reaching his 18th double-double of the season (18 points, 14 rebounds). “It might not be this season, but it will get better.”