No Love, no problem: Wolves win 108-103 in OT

With Kevin Love out ill, the Wolves came home from that winless four-game trip, fell behind by 20 points in the second quarter this afternoon and then, like five days earlier in Houston, rallied to force overtime.

This time, they won.

This time, they did it in just overtime, rather than losing in three as they had at Houston.

Jonny Flynn scored a career-high 29 points (9 for 16 shooting) and tied his career high in assists with nine after he shot 15 for 60 on that road trip.

"I know everybody's going to look at (Jonny's) points that he scored," Kurt Rambis said. "But I thought he did a good job, in my eyes, for the things that I look at for him. I can't emphasize enough that I believe he is going to be a terrific point guard in this league.

"I want him to really improve his defense and understand what teams do. He's got to learn the individuals he is playing against. He's the quarterback of the team, so his defense and his organizational quarterback skills is what I was impressed by."

Rambis again put the ball in Flynn's hands with the game tied and on the line in the final 27 seconds. Flynn dribbled the clock away and got to the basket like he did when he made that game winner at Utah last month, but missed the bank shot with six seconds left in regulation time.

Flynn scored five of the team's nine points in overtime on an afternoon when Al Jefferson stepped forth on both ends in Love's absence. The Wolves went to him for 11 of his 23 points in the fourth quarter and he stood firm at the other end as well, getting 9 of his 13 rebounds on the defensive end and blocking two shots -- one in the fourth quarter, one in overtime.

"I left him out there for extremely long stretches, just being short-handed without Kevin Love in the ballgame and making sure we did all the right things we had to do defesively," Rambis said. "I was very impressed by his defense, more than than his offense."

Other things from this afternoon:

* WIth Love out, Rambis called upon Brian Cardinal for 12 1/2 minutes. He played nearly eight of those minutes in the fourth quarter, when he made a big three, scored five points and had three assists.

"BC, he won that game," Ryan Hollins said. "He had that big fourth-quarter defensively, making passes, hit a three, making free throws. He was the reason we came back."

* Hollins played fewer than seven minutes in his first game back after missing six games because of an illness who promised he did not spread to Love. He looked tired and winded, which is exactly what he says he was.

"I felt winded," he said. "My timing was off. I tried to play hard, give good minutes, whatever I could."