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THE UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN
THURSDAY, MARCH 27, 2014
PAGE 7B
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NBA
ASSOCIATED PRESS
Atlanta Hawks forward Paul Millsap (4) drives against Minnesota Timberwolves forward Dante Cunningham (33) during the first half of an NBA basketball game on Wednesday in Minneapolis.
Dieng's 15 pushes Wolves past Hawks
ASSOCIATED PRESS
MINNEAPOLIS — Gorgui Dieng had 15 points and 15 rebounds to continue his out-of-nowhere emergence and the Minnesota Timberwolves dealt the slumping Atlanta Hawks another costly loss with a 107-83 victory.
Corey Brewer and Kevin Martin each scored 18 points and Kevin Love had 14 points and 12 rebounds for the Timberwolves. Minnesota scored 32 points off 26 Hawks turnovers and blew the game open in the second half.
Paul Millsap had 12 points and 10 rebounds for Atlanta, which has lost four straight and has the New York Knicks right in their rearview mirror for the eighth and final playoff spot. Jeff Teague, who had averaged more than 23 points over the previous four games,
went scoreless for the first time this season on 0-for-5 shooting.
The struggling Wolves defense held Atlanta to 37.8 percent shooting and had six of its 17 steals in the third quarter to start pulling away.
With starting center Nikola Pekovic out for the sixth straight game, Wolves coach Rick Adelman had no choice but to thrust the rookie Dieng into the first significant minutes of his career. Dieng has flourished with the added responsibility, posting double-doubles in five of the six games. He had 10 points and 13 rebounds in the first half, helping the Wolves weather an unusually quiet night from Love.
The last time these two teams met, on Feb. 1, the Hawks overcame 43 points and 19 rebounds from Love to
win for the fifth time in seven games. That put them at 25-22 and in third place in the Eastern Conference. But the Hawks have gone 6-17 since then, a slide exacerbated by injuries to Gustavo Ayon and Kyle Korver, who missed his fourth straight game.
And yet on Wednesday night it was the Wolves, who have essentially been out of the Western Conference playoff race for about two weeks, who played with the urgency and tenacity on defense of a team that needs every win it can get.
Atlanta's crumbling, combined with a surprising surge from the Knicks, turned a playoff spot that once appeared to be a foregone conclusion into anything but a sure thing. They led the ninth-place Knicks by three games for the final spot in the muddled East.
ST. PAUL, Minn. — David Booth scored two unassisted goals and Eddie Lack made 29 saves to lead the Vancouver Canucks over the Minnesota Wild 5-2 on Wednesday night.
Booth and Lack lead the way to Vancouver victory
Zack Kassian, Daniel Sedin and Ryan Kesler also scored for Vancouver as the Canucks try to make a late push to overtake Phoenix and Dallas for the Western Conference's final wild-card playoff spot.
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ASSOCIATED PRESS
Minnesota outshot Vancouver 31-19 and got goals from Charlie Coyle and Nino Niederreiter, but lost its third straight at home.
Booth scored for the second consecutive game after going scoreless in his previous 32.
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On his first goal, Booth took the puck the length of the ice after a faceoff and fired it past Darcy Kuemper.
Booth's second goal broke a 1-1 tie in the second period and came after Jared Spurgeon whiffed on a pass in the Wild zone, leading to a bad turnover and a point-blank look for Booth.
Minnesota, currently holding the first wild-card spot in the West, controlled play for most of the first two periods, but failed to capitalize on four power plays and fell behind 3-1.
Illya Bryzgalov took over for the slumping Kuemper
after two periods. Kuemper allowed three goals in 12 shots, the fifth time in his last seven start he's allowed at least three goals.
The switch didn't get Minnesota going. Vancouver killed an early third period power play, and then put the game away on Sedin's goal at 11:12 to make it 4-1.
The goal was Sedin's first in his last 23 games and his first point in his last 13.
Coyle's goal was his third in three games. The center had scored only once in his previous 24 games.
Lack got a little help in the second period from Alexander Edler. Zach Parise stuffed the puck between Lack's pads, but just before it crossed the goal line, Edler swept it away.
Vancouver has won six of its last nine after losing 11 of 12.
Both Phoenix and Dallas were idle on Wednesday. The Canucks now have 78 points, Dallas 79 and Phoenix 82.
Henrik Sedin missed the game with a leg injury and didn't make the trip.
ASSOCIATED PRESS
Vancouver Canucks center Brad Richardson, right, controls the puck in front of Minnesota Wild defenseman Jonathon Blum (7) during the first period of a game in St. Paul, Minn., Wednesday.
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