Spurs-Timberwolves Preview

By ALAN FERGUSON

(AP) -- Kevin Martin fought through an illness to give the short-handed Minnesota Timberwolves a needed boost in their latest game.

A visit from surging San Antonio on Friday night would appear to provide an even greater challenge to the Timberwolves, especially considering the Spurs' recent defensive performances against Martin.

Minnesota (3-7) has lost point guard Ricky Rubio for an unknown period after he severely sprained his left ankle in the second of six consecutive games away from home. Nikola Pekovic sprained his right wrist during the 1-5 trek, and Thaddeus Young returned home following the death of his mother.

Martin helped Minnesota overcome those absences with a season-high 37 points, including seven 3-pointers, in a 115-99 victory over New York on Wednesday to snap a five-game skid. The veteran guard scored 34 in 29 minutes in the finale of the trip Saturday against Dallas after totaling 23 points in his prior three games.

"We're going to go through an adjustment period without Ricky. We changed some sets that we had to run, changed our offense a little bit and tweaked some things, which benefited (Martin)," coach Flip Saunders said. "(Martin) has adjusted and the team has adjusted. We're setting better screens to get him open and finding him. It's kind of been a combination of things."

With Pekovic and Young not expected to return until next week at the earliest, Martin will try to lead the Timberwolves to back-to-back wins for the first time.

The Spurs (7-4), however, arrive in Minnesota having won five of six.

They edged Cleveland 92-90 on Wednesday with Boris Diaw and Tim Duncan providing 19 points apiece. San Antonio, using a nine-man rotation, also held LeBron James to 15 points and former Timberwolves star Kevin Love to a season-low 10.

The Spurs were without Tiago Splitter (calf), Marco Belinelli (groin), Matt Bonner (illness) and Patty Mills (shoulder).

"It's a big one. It's a great win on the road against a good team, a very talented team," Duncan said. "We're still trying to get ourselves together. ... We're missing some guys so it's a good win for us."

San Antonio held Cleveland to 15 points below its average, and is allowing an average of 84.8 points on 19.1 percent 3-point shooting in its last four games.

The Spurs have also made things difficult for Martin. He is averaging 7.8 points on 26.3 percent shooting in his last four matchups, which includes starts in a pair of losses in San Antonio last season.

Martin and Pekovic both sat out the lone visit from the Spurs in 2013-14 because of injuries, but Minnesota took a 110-91 victory April 8, its fourth win in the last five home games against San Antonio.

Differences in personnel could make it difficult for the Timberwolves to continue that success against the Spurs on their own court.

Along with Rubio's injury and Love's departure, the absence of Pekovic could have another effect as he was averaging 20.3 points on 59.5 percent shooting and 9.0 rebounds in his last three matchups.

Tony Parker has sat out the past two visits to Minnesota after scoring 51 points in his prior two games there. Duncan has missed two of the last three in Minnesota and hasn't been particularly effective when he has played, totaling 19 points on 6-of-23 shooting in his last two visits.