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Sloppy play sends Wolves back to Minnesota with series tie
May 13, 2004

Gary Trent of the Minnesota Timberwolves sits on the floor dejected after commiting a foul against the Sacramento Kings in Game four of the Western Conference Semifinal during NBA Playoffs May 12, 2004 at Arco Arena in Sacramento. (Photo by Jed Jacobsohn/Getty Images )

Sacramento, Calif. — (AP) Minnesota coach Flip Saunders quickly ran down the list of what has to happen to beat Sacramento on its home floor: Keep turnovers down. Defend. Make big shots in crunch time. Hit free throws.

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The Timberwolves had a hard time with just about all of those things in their latest showdown with the Kings.

Chris Webber scored his playoff-high of 28 points and Brad Miller added 20 in the Kings' 87-81 victory Wednesday night in Game 4 of the second-round playoff series, evening things at 2 apiece as the teams head back to Minnesota for Friday night's Game 5.

Game 6 is back in Sacramento on Sunday.

"We got it tied up and made it a three-game series," Miller said. "Now, it's just a matter of giving it all you got and not worrying about what happened the other day."

Mike Bibby had 15 points and a playoff-best 12 assists for the Kings. Webber started the game 6-for-6, then scored six points over the final 3:20, quashing the Timberwolves' hopes for a third straight last-minute victory.

"I made up my mind tonight I was going to play my game, do what they brought me here to do," said Webber, who is starting to look like himself again almost a year after major knee surgery. "At least I was going to try to do it."

Kevin Garnett had 19 points and 21 rebounds, but the league MVP was flustered early by the defense of Webber, Miller and Vlade Divac. Garnett was held to five first-half points.

It was a completely different game from two nights earlier, when the 6-foot-11 forward scored 15 of his 30 points after the third quarter to lead his team to a 114-113 overtime victory.

Garnett left in a hurry after Wednesday's game and didn't speak to reporters.

In the other game Wednesday, it was Miami 100, Indiana 88 to even the Eastern Conference series 2-2.

The Timberwolves shot 40 percent - 8-of-18 by Garnett, 5-for-15 by Latrell Sprewell and 4-for-15 by Sam Cassell - and committed 24 turnovers, including nine in an ugly first quarter.

"We had a lot of unforced turnovers," Saunders said. "We just made bad decisions. We were doing a lot of things I haven't seen in a long time. ... I said the recipe to playing against them is very basic. You can't turn the ball over. To us, 24 turnovers is very uncharacteristic."

Minnesota had just eight turnovers in Monday's win. The top-seeded team in the Western Conference sure didn't look like it, trailing by as many as 17 points in the first half.

Sacramento limited Minnesota to one shot on most possessions and didn't allow the Timberwolves any points in the paint - the place they make their living - until just before halftime.

"We have to be really in tune defensively against them," Kings coach Rick Adelman said.

Heading into Wednesday's game, the Timberwolves were 3-0 this season at raucous Arco Arena and were the only team to beat the Kings more than once on their home court, where Sacramento has sold out an NBA record 225 straight games.

"I think we played better defense, and that's why we won the game," Divac said. "We talked about mixing it up a little more.

"This was a game we had to have."

Peja Stojakovic, the NBA's second-leading scorer in the regular season, had yet another terrible shooting game, missing eight of his first nine shots and rarely asserting himself in the Kings' offense. Stojakovic, Bibby and Doug Christie combined to shoot 7-for-31, getting just one basket in the fourth quarter.

With the Kings' victory, all four of the second-round playoff series are tied at two games apiece - but only this series featured any road wins.

Led by Webber's outside shooting and strong team defense, the Kings jumped to a 17-point lead in the first half. But nothing is easy in this series: Minnesota quickly made a 19-6 run that included 11 straight points, and the Wolves briefly tied it late in the third quarter.

Bibby made up for his 4-for-12 shooting with his best playmaking of the series despite Sprewell's defense. He also hit all six of his free throws, leading Sacramento's 22-of-25 performance from the line.

Cassell had 15 points and six assists for the Timberwolves, while Sprewell had 13 points. The rest of the roster managed just 34 points.

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