Tobacco Road woes

It's tough being a Duke fan these days. Just ask Timberwolves rookie Tyus Jones.

One season after Jones, Jahlil Okafor and Justise Winslow led their school to another NCAA title, Duke has lost four of its past five conference games, is 4-4 in ACC play and could miss the NCAA tournament.

Jones has heard from Wolves teammates Karl-Anthony Towns (Kentucky) and Gorgui Dieng (Louisville) about it.

"Any time anyone can say anything bad about Duke, they take advantage of it," Jones said. "If they lose a game, I'm sure to hear about it as soon as the game is over. … I know [Duke] fans are probably frustrated right now, but Coach K [Mike Krzyzewski] has been through it all. He knows what he's doing, and he'll get everything figured out. They're only eight games into the conference season."

More fuel for the fire

Portland's Damian Lillard was left out of the All-Star Game for the second consecutive season. He'll play the Wolves Sunday in his second game since learning that.

Uh-oh.

"I'll go out there and that wood on the fire will be more for my team," he said. "What I can do now is get this team into the playoffs, put my energy into that. … The numbers speak for themselves. I feel like I've played at an All-Star level. Obviously maybe the coaches didn't."

Year and counting …

Golden State celebrated the one-year anniversary of its last regular-season home loss by beating Dallas 127-107 Wednesday at Oracle Arena. That's 40 consecutive in the regular season since Chicago won 113-111 in overtime on Jan. 27, 2015. Memphis and Cleveland each beat the Warriors once in Oakland during the playoffs.