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Butler leads Wizards past hapless Timberwolves

Mar 10, 2009 - 4:15 AM MINNEAPOLIS (Ticker) -- Caron Butler scored 27 points to lead the Washington Wizards to a 110-99 victory over the Minnesota Timberwolves on Monday.

Antawn Jamison scored 26 points for the Wizards, who snapped a five-game losing streak.

"I thought this was a good team win where everyone made a real solid contribution," Washington coach Ed Tapscott said. "It's just nice to get a win and like I said, these guys have been good all year about fighting through tough times so I'm happiest for them. My veteran guys have been terrific. And I'll just keep making the point to the young guys, follow them and we'll be fine. Use them as examples."

Rookie Kevin Love had 16 points and 11 rebounds and Ryan Gomes added 18 points for the Timberwolves, who have lost 10 straight.

"We don't have a lot of confidence right now. You get confidence by making plays, you get confidence by making stops, you get confidence by doing things right," Minnesota coach Kevin McHale said. "Right now we got to find a way to go out there, be in games and give ourselves a chance to win games. I'd say right now we're not an overly-confident bunch right now, I can tell you that much."

Minnesota also lost guard Randy Foye in the fourth quarter with a sprained right ankle.

Foye had to be carried to the locker room in the fourth quarter with a sprained right ankle. He went up to grab a high lob pass from Mike Miller, but crumpled to the court in pain.

Foye is the team's second-leading scorer, averaging 16.9 points.

The loss of Foye would be devastating for the already depleted Timberwolves. They have been without center Al Jefferson due to a season-ending knee injury he suffered just before the All-Star break and have gone 1-12 without him.

Washington has also dealt with injuries, playing without guard Gilbert Arenas and center Brendan Haywood all season, but the Wizards had Butler and Jamison on Monday and it was enough.

"The thing I always say, nobody is going to feel sorry for you in this part of the game," Jamison said. "You just gotta go out there and believe you can win the games with the players that you are out there with and just give it your all."

Jamison scored 14 points in the final eight minutes of the third to put the Wizards ahead 79-73 entering the fourth. Butler did his part with six points in a 13-0 fourth-quarter run that put the game out of reach.

"They made the type of plays that All-Star players make. I know neither of them were voted to the All-Star game this year, but they're All-Stars," Tapscott said. "They are certainly All-Stars in my mind. They've been doing that night in and night out for us, and we need it. With as young a team as we have, if they're able to put up numbers, we're competitive. We know teams are gearing to stop them so we just need to move the ball a little bit more."