MINNEAPOLIS -- The struggling Minnesota Timberwolves finally got to blow off some steam. Nikola Pekovic had 27 points and 14 rebounds in three quarters and the Timberwolves blasted the Utah Jazz, 98-72 on Saturday night. Kevin Love had 18 points, 13 rebounds and five assists, and Kevin Martin scored 20 points to help the Wolves snap a three-game losing streak that included losses to Sacramento and Toronto. The Wolves scored 28 points off 16 Utah turnovers and outscored the Jazz 50-18 in the paint for a much-needed blowout. Alec Burks scored 18 points for the Jazz, who trailed by as many as 36 points and shot 28.8 per cent, the worst shooting night in franchise history. Derrick Favours had eight points and 10 boards, but was just 3 for 10 from the field. The Timberwolves hit a season-low three games under .500 with a dispiriting loss in Toronto on Friday night, and a season that started with playoff aspirations was threatening to be done in by a lack of team chemistry and an inability to win close games. They are 0-11 this season in games decided by four points or less, but also lead the league in games in which theyve led by at least 30 points (10). The Jazz were playing again without leading scorer Gordon Hayward, who was out with a strained left hip flexor. And theyve never missed him more. The Jazz missed 20 of their first 26 shots against the team with the worst field goal percentage defence in the league. With just under nine minutes to play in the first half, Favours went up for a dunk but didnt make it high enough and was rejected by the rim. He grabbed the ball, went straight up again, and missed another dunk off the back iron. Incredibly, it only got worse from there. The Jazz made two field goals in the entirety of their nine-point second quarter and went into halftime trailing by 28 points. They went 8 for 39 in the first two quarters, just 20.5 per cent, and managed a season-low 23 points, the second-lowest scoring half for a Wolves opponent in franchise history. How bad was it? Pekovic and Martin combined for 39 points midway through the third quarter. The Jazz had 37. The Timberwolves werent exactly on fire, either. They shot 44 per cent in the first half and missed eight of 19 free throws. But if any team needed a gimme like this one, it was the Wolves. They had lost four of their previous five games to fall to 11th in the Western Conference and were fighting discord in the locker room and plummeting confidence on the court. That all changed on Saturday night, with Love and Pekovic rough-housing on the sideline, Martin playing with an aggression that hasnt been seen for a few weeks and Ricky Rubio playing with a hop in his step and a smile on his face for the first time in a month. Rubio had six points, nine assists and eight rebounds in 26 minutes. Promising rookie Trey Burke had just nine points on 2-for-10 shooting for Utah. NOTES: The Jazzs previous franchise low for field goal percentage was 29.3 per cent against New York on Nov. 14, 2005. ... Love hit a 3-pointer in the first quarter that moved him past Wally Szczerbiak for second on the franchises career list. ... The teams meet again in Utah on Tuesday. . Saltalamacchia has agreed to a $21 million, three-year deal with the Miami Marlins, two people familiar with the negotiations said Tuesday. . At this point, even he isnt sure when it is going to stop. The right-hander dropped his fourth straight decision in Los Angeles 6-1 loss to the Pittsburgh Pirates on Wednesday night, leaving his status very much in doubt as the Dodgers prepare for the stretch drive.
http://www.pascheryeezy350v2.fr/fausse- ... grise.html. They were expecting him there all along. The Pacers announced Friday night that George has been cleared "to return to normal basketball activity," a decision made three days after he was concussed in Game 2 of the Indiana-Miami series. . -- Once again, Carlos Santana was a huge hit in Kansas City. .Carla Fontes hadnt cut her hair since intermediate school, but her coach at Waiakea High School, Stan Haraguchi, thought the locks flowing below her waist were interfering with the sport. PRETORIA, South Africa - In a day of potentially damaging testimony, a former girlfriend of Oscar Pistorius said at his murder trial Friday that he once shot his gun out of a car sunroof and later cheated on her with the woman he killed last year. And a security guard recalled the athlete telling him everything was "fine" after neighbours reported gunshots coming from Pistorius house on the night of her death. The gripping accounts capped the first week of the televised trial of the double-amputee Olympian, whose chief defence lawyer has tried to sow doubt about the testimony of neighbours who said they heard a womans screams before gunshots. Proceedings have also focused on past incidents involving alleged gunplay, part of an apparent prosecution effort to portray Pistorius, 27, as a hothead who sometimes thought he was above authority. Prosecutors say he intentionally killed Reeva Steenkamp during an argument, but he insists it was a mistake, and that he fired through the locked toilet door in his bathroom believing an intruder was behind it. The security guard, Pieter Baba, testified that he telephoned Pistorius after the reported gunshots in the pre-dawn hours of Feb. 14, 2013, and that the athlete assured him in their brief conversation: "Security, everything is fine." Moments later, Baba said, Pistorius phoned him back, started crying and didnt say anything and then the line went dead. It was minutes after he shot Steenkamp, a 29-year-old model. "Not everything was in order as Mr. Pistorius was telling me," Baba recalled saying to a fellow guard as they were outside the runners villa. Earlier, ex-girlfriend Samantha Taylor, who cried twice during her time on the stand in the Pretoria court, said Pistorius always carried a firearm when they dated and sometimes shouted angrily at her and her friends. There were murmurs in court when Taylor said their relationship ended because Pistorius cheated on her with Steenkamp. Taylor said she started going out with Pistorius in 2011 when she was 17 and that the relationship ended in November 2012. She described some of Pistorius habits, including what side of the bed he slept on at home, the fact that he placed his gun on the bedside table or next to his prostheses on the floor at night and how he would balance against things if he was walking on his stumps. Pistorius was born without fibula bones because of a congenital defect, and his legs were amputated when he was 11 months old. He ran on carbon-fiber blades and is a multiple Paralympic medallist . He also competed at the Lonndon Olympics but didnt win a medal.dddddddddddd Taylor described one occasion in which Pistorius fired his gun out of a sunroof soon after a policeman stopped their car for speeding. She also mentioned another incident in which she and Pistorius were followed by a car as he drove home. "When we arrived at his estate, he jumped out of the car with his gun and held it to someones window, and then they drove away," Taylor said. Defence lawyer Barry Roux raised the possibility that Pistorius was trying to protect Taylor, though she said did not feel threatened. Taylor also described problems in her relationship with Pistorius, the first amputee to run in the Olympics. "He cheated on me with Reeva Steenkamp," Taylor said. The court later adjourned briefly after Taylor broke down in tears while describing how Pistorius had earlier cheated on her with a different woman, and then again when she cried while discussing her problems with him. Roux, the defence lawyer, said he would produce emails between Taylor and Pistorius to show that her testimony was untrue, and he also sought to highlight apparent gaps in Taylors memory of the alleged sunroof gunfire in September 2012. Roux said Pistorius denies the shooting took place. Taylor also described previous incidents when Pistorius thought there was an intruder trying to get into his home, saying he reacted by waking her up. "There was one occasion when something hit the bathroom window and Oscar woke me up and asked me if I heard it," Taylor said. "He got up with his gun." But he woke you up, asked prosecutor Gerrie Nel. "Yes. There was probably one or two occasions when he woke me up to ask me if I heard something," Taylor replied. Pistorius did not attempt to wake or locate Steenkamp before he shot her by mistake, according to his own version of events. On the night Steenkamp died, security guard Baba said he drove from the main gate of the gated community to Pistorius home with a colleague after neighbours called to report sounds like gunshots from that direction. A few minutes after Babas two brief phone calls with Pistorius, two other people showed up: Johan Stander, a manager of the housing complex whom Pistorius says he called to get an ambulance, and Standers daughter. The group went to the front door of the house and someone pushed it open. Baba said he saw Pistorius coming down the stairs, carrying the bloodied Steenkamp. "I was so shocked," Baba said. "I started regaining my senses when Mr. Stander said Oscar." ' ' '
