Walker pours in 31 as Hornets down Wolves
KEMBA Walker scored 31 points, and the host Charlotte Hornets rolled to a muchneeded 113-106 victory over the Minnesota Timberwolves on Thursday night.
The Hornets scored seven straight points early in the fourth quarter to gain a working margin, and then they went on to lead by as many as 11 down the stretch, the latest at 111-100.
The Hornets (32-39) had lost four of their previous five and 11 of their previous 15. They remain 10th in the Eastern Conference standings but now are three games behind No. 8 Miami with the tiebreaker over the Heat.
The Timberwolves (3240) have lost five straight.
The Hornets also got 14 points from Malik Monk, 13 points from Marvin Williams and Jeremy Lamb, 11 points and 12 rebounds from Miles Bridges, and 10 points from Willy Hernangomez.
Karl-Anthony Towns led the Timberwolves with 21 points and 16 rebounds, and he added six assists. Andrew Wiggins scored 20, Dario Saric 15, Tyus Jones 14 and Josh Okogie and Gorgui Dieng 10 apiece.
The Timberwolves were without Derrick Rose (elbow), Robert Covington (knee) and Jeff Teague (foot). The team announced before the game that all three were being shelved and would miss the remainder of the season.
Young helps Hawks beat Jazz to end losing streak
Rookie Trae Young scored 23 points, including the go-ahead three-point play with 1:47 remaining, and the Atlanta Hawks hung on to beat the visiting Utah Jazz 117-114 on Thursday.
Atlanta’s Dewayne Dedmon made a free throw with 6.2 seconds left to give the Hawks a 117-114 lead. Utah’s Kyle Korver then missed two free throws, the second on purpose, and Donovan Mitchell missed a 3-pointer that was rebounded by Atlanta’s Kent Bazemore as the clock expired.
The win broke Atlanta’s three-game losing streak and snapped Utah’s five-game winning streak. The teams split their two-game series.
Young gave the Hawks the lead for good when he scored on a layup and made the free throw for a 112-110 lead. He added 11 assists for his 25th double-double of the season.
Dedmon, who made 3 of 4 free throws in the final 19 seconds, finished with 18 points and nine rebounds. John Collins, hampered by foul trouble for the third straight game, was limited to nine points and eight rebounds before fouling out in the fourth quarter.
Utah, playing the second half of a back-to-back road series, got 34 points from Mitchell, his second straight 30-point game. Ricky Rubio scored 17 points, Derrick Favors added 15 points and 15 rebounds, and Rudy Gobert added 12 points and 11 rebounds.