Timberwolves at Mavericks
The Minnesota Timberwolves brought in head coach Tom Thibodeau over the summer in large part because of his reputation as a defensive mastermind, and the young roster might finally be buying into his philosophy. The Timberwolves will try to push their winning streak to four straight when they visit the Dallas Mavericks on Sunday.
The winning streak began with a 101-92 home win over the Mavericks on Monday and continued to grow more impressive as Minnesota held a pair of playoff contenders and offensive powers down in wins over Houston and the Oklahoma City Thunder. "We've got a lot of guys who are putting the work in and are improving," Thibodeau told reporters. "But we still have a long way to go. We're nowhere where we need to be." The Mavericks are a long way from where they want to be as well and continue to languish at or near the bottom of the standings in the Western Conference. Dallas was outrebounded 56-40 in Mexico City by the Phoenix Suns on Thursday but knocked down 15 from 3-point range and pulled out a 113-108 triumph against another team trying to stay out of the cellar.
TV: 2 p.m. ET, FSN North (Minnesota), FSN Southwest (Dallas)
ABOUT THE TIMBERWOLVES (14-26): Minnesota point guard Ricky Rubio contributed 14 points, 14 assists and four steals to Friday's 96-86 win over the Thunder and is one of the keys to the team's current stretch of good fortune. The 26-year-old Spaniard posted three straight double-doubles during the winning streak and is averaging 15.3 assists in that span. "I'm playing better, I'm feeling better," Rubio told reporters. "The results are there, but I don't want to be a four-game stand, I want to be all season long like that. It's hard, we have a lot of games, but my expectations are high and I'm going to keep them high, because I worked hard to do it."
ABOUT THE MAVERICKS (12-27): Dallas is getting strong play from its point guard as well, and Deron Williams keyed Thursday's victory with 23 points and 12 assists. Williams found his shooting stroke in the last two games and combined to go 14-of-24 from the field - 5-of-8 from 3-point range - while using veteran Dirk Nowitzki as a pick-and-roll partner. Nowitzki appears fully recovered from an Achilles injury that robbed him of over a month and knocked down a combined 8-of-15 from 3-point range in the last two games.
BUZZER BEATERS
1. Mavericks C Andrew Bogut suffered a right hamstring strain in Monday's meeting, sat out Thursday and is day-to-day.
2. Timberwolves C Karl-Anthony Towns is averaging 28.7 points on 67.9 percent shooting and 15.3 rebounds in the last three games.
3. Minnesota's win on Monday snapped a seven-game losing streak in the series, and Dallas took the last four meetings at home.