Utah Jazz finally beat T-Wolves

MINNEAPOLIS — Losing once this season to Minnesota was embarrassing enough. Twice in two tries, a downright disgrace.

But falling three times to a Timberwolves team whose record against the rest of the NBA is 5-25?

That would be have disastrous, had it happened.

Fortunately for the Jazz it did not, as they withstood a late Timberwolves rally bid to beat Minnesota 107-103 behind double-doubles from Deron Williams and Carlos Boozer on Wednesday night at the Target Center.

"Well," said Jazz coach Jerry Sloan, whose 18-13 club had dropped three straight to Minnesota dating back to late last season, "it was nice to be able to beat this team.

"They're a tough team. They pass the ball well, they've got guys that can rebound, they've got guys that can shoot the ball. I think they're really a tough team for us to play."

The Jazz were reminded of that the hard way in Wednesday's late going, when Minnesota — which scored on its last 11 full possessions — went from 17 points down at 101-84 with 41/2 minutes remaining to just three behind on a couple of occasions in the final minute.

The first came after big man Kevin Love hit the second of back-to-back 3-pointers to make it 105-102 Utah with 37.6 seconds left.

That capped a stretch with 10 straight Minnesota points by Love in the last 2:05, including two scored when he slipped away from Paul Millsap on in-bounds play.

"It was just like, 'Here we go again,' " Williams said.

Timberwolves guard Ramon Sessions made it a three-point game again with 7.6 seconds to go, but Williams — who had 12 assists and a team-high 21 points — answered by hitting 1-of-2 free throws to secure Utah's 14th win in 21 games.

"We weren't getting into our stuff, we weren't executing and," Williams said, "we ... had a couple lapses on defense there where we let Kevin Love get free for 3s — you know, things we can't do in a close ballgame."

"We go over that stuff before the game and try to make players aware of the fact that he (Love) is shooting 50 percent from the 3-point line — and you come down the stretch and give him wide-open looks?" Sloan added. "Those are tough things to deal with."

So, too, was the fact the Jazz committed four offensive miscues — three by Williams, who called them "bad turnovers" — in the final 2:48.