Blazers beat fading Wolves

Published 8:27 am Monday, April 2, 2012

PORTLAND, Ore. — LaMarcus Aldridge will keep the words he had with Minnesota’s Kevin Love to himself.

The two All-Stars jawed at times on Sunday night, when both scored 26 points but Aldridge’s Trail Blazers came out on top, 119-106.

“It was just two guys going hard,” the diplomatic Aldridge said.

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Love also had nine rebounds for the Timberwolves, who have dropped eight of their last 10 games. He also brushed off the back-and-forth with Aldridge, explaining it was probably something the Blazers’ star did to “get his team going, get the fans into it.”

Nicolas Batum added 24 points for the Blazers, who like the Timberwolves are fighting to stay in the playoff picture.

Portland continues to adjusting to the dismissal of coach Nate McMillan and the trade of starters Marcus Camby and Gerald Wallace at the deadline. Portland is now 5-5 under interim head coach Caleb Canales, who has been juggling with his roster.

On Sunday, the Blazers started J.J. Hickson, who was picked up on March 21 after he was waived by Sacramento.

“We played a good game, played sound defense, we controlled the rebounds,” Batum said. “And we controlled Kevin Love.”

The Timberwolves used nine players as they battle injuries, including the loss of rookie Ricky Rubio for the season.

Minnesota guard J.J. Barea was out for the fifth straight game with a bruised right quadriceps and forward Michael Beasley missed his third game with a sprained big toe on his left foot.

Center Nikola Pekovic, who has missed six games with bone spurs in his right ankle, was with the team on it short two-game road trip to Portland and Sacramento, but coach Rick Adelman said before the game that he would not play.

“Losing Ricky was obviously the toughest thing for us. We were able to grind out games and get wins, but then Pek went down, J.J. continued to be hurt and Michael just added firepower,” Love said. “All four of those guys added something special to this team. When we were rolling we had everyone together.”