February 21st, 2009 
Stephen Rhodes 
Posted in 
The Indiana Pacers were without Danny Granger – out for the foreseeable future with a torn tendon in his right foot – for Friday night’s game against the Minnesota Timberwolves; fortunately for them, Marquis Daniels managed to pick up on the offensive end as he scored 24 points. But to be fair – while Daniels had a good scoring effort – a combination of turnovers and lousy free throw shooting by the T-Wolves (23-for-41, 56.1%) proved to be their undoing as Indiana held off Minnesota 112-105 at Target Center.
The Pacers got off to a great start in the second quarter as they built up a 46-31 lead on an uncontested layup by T.J. Ford; the Timberwolves got to within on a jumper by Randy Foye, but after a timeout, Indiana would build a bigger advantage.
In the fourth quarter, the Pacers were up by 20, but the T-Wolves would get to within 100-92 and 102-97 on a pair of 3-pointers by Foye; But after a foul by the Pacers’ Jarrett Jack, Minnesota’s Sebastian Telfair made one of 2 free throws and Daniels made a jumper to get the Pacers’ lead back to 6 with 35.9 seconds left in the game.
Daniels led all Indiana scorers with 24 points, 4 rebounds, an assist, 2 steals and a blocked shot while Jack added 18 with 4 rebounds, 5 assists, 2 steals and a blocked shot; Troy Murphy chipped in 16 (including 3 treys) with 14 rebounds, 3 assists and a steal.
Minnesota’s high scorer was Foye with 36 points (including 5 three-pointers) with 6 rebounds, 3 assists and 4 steals but committed 5 turnovers while Ryan Gomes added 26 with 3 rebounds, an assist and 2 steals; Mike Miller pitched in 18 with 8 rebounds, 5 assists, a steal and a blocked shot but turned the ball over 7 times. Indiana (23-34) plays again on Sunday afternoon when they return home to host the Chicago Bulls while Minnesota (18-36) stays home to host the Los Angeles Lakers – also on Sunday.
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