Minnesota Sports Roundup: Wolves back over .500 with win over Atlanta

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The Minnesota Timberwolves took down the Atlanta Hawks on Tuesday night by a 108-103 final. It was the Wolves fourth wire-to-wire win of the season improving Minnesota to 16-15 - their best start since the 2006-07 season. The win also snapped an 11-game losing streak against the Hawks dating back to the 2005-06 season. The T-Wolves improved to 8-0 when scoring at least 100 points. Nikola Pekovic finished with 25 points and a career high 18 rebounds on 9-of-15 shooting. Andrei Kirilenko finished with 21 points, six rebounds and five assits.

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Timberwolves head coach Rick Adelman missed Tuesday's game vs Atlanta for personal reasons. Wolves assistant coach Terry Porter served as the acting head coach for the game against the Hawks and guided Minnesota to the win. Porter has had a pair of prior head coaching stints in the NBA - first with Milwaukee from 2003-05 and then with Phoenix for the 2008-2009 season.

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Tonight the Timberwolves are back on the floor for a rematch against the always powerful Oklahoma City Thunder. The two teams met on December 20th at the Target Center and Minnesota came out on top in that one 99-93, snapping a 12-game losing streak in the series. While the T-Wolves will enter the game hot off their win last night over Atlanta, O-K-C will come in fresh off a loss on Monday night at Washington. That said, the Thunder are a stellar 17-3 at home and boast one of the best players in the game in forward Kevin Durant. Tip-off from Chesapeake Energy Arena is set for 7 pm.

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The 8th-ranked Gophers have another stern test on the docket tonight when they travel to take on a 12th-ranked Illinois team. The Gophers are 14-1 overall and looking for their first 3-0 start in the Big 10 since the 1996-97 season - the same year they last claimed a conference championship. Minnesota comes in off a 69-51 win over Northwestern to give them 10 straight victories. The Fighting Illini are 14-2 on the season and 1-1 in the Big 10. They're 8-0 at home thus far and are coming off a 74-55 win over Ohio State on Saturday. Game time is tonight at 8.

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The #1-ranked Gopher hockey team put forth an impressive effort in beating the #2-ranked Notre Dame Fighting Irish on Tuesday night by a 4-1 final. Nate Condon, Sam Warning and Zach Budish each had two points in the victory while Alex Wilcox made 22 saves. The game saw Gopher head coach Don Lucia face off against his son Mario, a freshman with Notre Dame, for the first time. The win improves the Gophers to 14-3-3 on the season as they prepare for a two game home series this weekend against Alaska-Anchorage.

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Two new faces joined the crowd at Xcel Energy Center on Tuesday morning as Wild players continue to converge on St. Paul in anticipation of the start of training camp. Both Mikael Granlund and Torrey Mitchell joined to bring the total of Wild players skating at this point to 20. Wild captain Mikko Koivu along with Danny Heatley and Zenon Konapka are the three remaining that are expected to join the team in the next two days. Rookie Mathew Dumba, the Wild's 7th overall pick in the 2012 NHL Entry Draft is expected to join the team on Friday. Camp is thought to begin this weekend with the season starting a week after, although nothing is solidified as of yet.

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Wednesday could be a big day for former Twins pitcher Jack Morris as the St. Paul native waits for a possible call from Cooperstown. Morris played 18 seasons and collected 254 wins. Most impressively, Morris also won four World Series Championship rings including in 1991 with the Minnesota Twins. While he's been eligible for the Hall of Fame since 2000 he's continued to fall short of the 75% of the votes needed to gain acceptance. Last year though his 67% was the most he's had to date. Could this be his year? The announcement is set for 1 p.m.

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