Ricky Davis scored 24 points and Mark Blount added 18 to lead the Minnesota Timberwolves past the sleepy Seattle SuperSonics 101-82 on Friday night. Kevin Garnett never got going for Minnesota. He barely extended his double-digit scoring streak to 349 games, reaching 10 points on 4-for-15 shooting with a short turnaround midway through the fourth quarter. Mark Madsen subbed for him the next time the clock stopped. Davis picked up the slack, though, and Marko Jaric chipped in 13 points on 5-for-7 shooting to give Minnesota its third win in four games. Ray Allen returned for Seattle after missing Thursday night's game following the birth of his son, but neither he nor the rest of his teammates really showed up. The Sonics shot a season-low 35.2 percent from the field and trailed by as many as 28 points with less than 10 minutes left. Allen finished with 14 points. Seattle barely made it to the arena, after waiting at the Denver airport for 2 1/2 hours during snowy weather only to head back to the team hotel and try again in the morning following a 4 a.m. bed time. Seattle coach Bob Hill beamed before the game about the promise and progress of rookie center Mouhamed Sene, a 6-foot-11 native of Senegal who was drafted 10th overall. Sene, who played last season in Belgium, started for the third time after totaling only 53 minutes and nine points in Seattle's first 30 games. A powerful dunk off an early pass from Luke Ridnour was the 20-year-old's lone highlight, though, and Sene logged just eight minutes -- all in the first quarter. Blount's limited skills -- he's a 7-footer who relies mostly on mid-range jump shots -- have been apparent since he arrived in a big trade with Boston last January, but this was one of his best games in a Minnesota uniform. He finished 8-for-12 from the field, grabbed nine rebounds and didn't let Sene do anything after the dunk. Hill sent a small lineup out for the second half, with Nick Collison instead of the rookie, and Johan Petro -- who had 12 points -- played the majority of the post-halftime minutes at center. Losers of eight of their last 10 games, the Sonics showed their sluggishness. They fell behind 28-18 late in the first quarter and trailed by double digits most of the rest of the night. Allen, who shot 4-for-16, was well-guarded by Trenton Hassell, and Seattle was outrebounded 56-38. Though starting point guard Mike James, whose wife gave birth to a daughter the day before, had another low-impact performance with five points in 21 minutes, the Wolves had plenty of perimeter production. Rookie Randy Foye had 12 points, seven rebounds and five assists as Minnesota put together a rare complete game without melting down in at least one quarter. Even with a mere six points at the half from Garnett, the Wolves held a 56-39 lead.
Notes: Hill shrugged off the effects of the late night, at least for him. "I'm not a guy who requires a lot of sleep," he said before the game. ... Minnesota's Rashad McCants, out since early-summer microfracture surgery on his right knee, has been practicing on a limited basis with the team -- and could be ready to return in a couple of weeks. But coach Dwane Casey was cautious about putting a timetable on that, stressing that it will depend on how McCants responds to increased contact and activity. (Copyright 2006 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.)
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