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Foye, Timberwolves rally past Clippers

Nov 26, 2006 - 3:40 AM MINNEAPOLIS (Ticker) -- Rookie Randy Foye waited until the final period to upstage a stellar performance by a former Minnesota Timberwolves star.

Foye scored seven of his career-high 15 points in a decisive fourth-quarter run and Kevin Garnett had 25 points and 10 rebounds as the Timberwolves posted a 104-96 victory over the Los Angeles Clippers for their first three-game winning streak of the season.

Rookie Craig Smith scored 12 points for the Timberwolves, who shot 53 percent (37-of-70) from the field and withstood 31 points by Sam Cassell, who helped Minnesota reach the 2004 Western Conference finals.

Trailing, 95-84, with five minutes remaining, Minnesota finished on a 19-2 burst. Foye capped the spurt with an emphatic dunk at the buzzer, erasing a 12-point fourth-quarter deficit.

Foye made 5-of-6 shots - including both his 3-pointers - in 17 minutes. He did some of his damagae against Cassell, a shaky defender.

"This is by far one of my best games," Foye said. "I just went out there and played free. I didn't worry about anything. I didn't worry about making mistakes and I just played and made big shots."

"I think you saw a young man, Foye, grow up and become the player we knew we drafted," Timberwolves coach Dwane Casey said. "He's getting better every day and going against Cassell and Cuttino Mobley, two of the best savvy guys in the league, he showed some stuff and I was really happy for him."

Cassell made 14-of-24 shots and added eight assists. In the fourth quarter, he scored just three points.

"I want to win everywhere. I play my heart out everywhere," said Cassell, whose team is 0-4 away from home. "It's a loss, we're 6-5 now. We haven't yet won on the road. We've got to try to put together some road wins."

The Timberwolves trailed, 81-69, after three periods but outscored Los Angeles, 35-15, in the final 12 minutes.

"We didn't give up, we kept fighting and scraping, we kept working and Kevin played great," Casey said. "Ricky Davis' defense was big, but we can't dig ourselves in a hole like we did. I am looking at the big picture, and we have to get off to better starts."

Along with his stellar defensive play, Davis added 14 points on 7-of-13 shooting. However, Clippers coach Mike Dunleavy thought his squad beat itself.

"We took too quick of shots, we forced some issues on some shots and we didn't get the ball inside where we had matchup advantages and because of that we paid the price," Dunleavy said.

Garnett shot 9-of-13 from the floor and Davis was 7-of-13 with seven rebounds.

Elton Brand scored 21 points for Los Angeles, which shot 53 percent (39-of-73) but lost their third straight contest.

"We're a confident team," Cassell said. "We understand we let this one slip through our hands, but we've got to find a way to win this kind of game."