Love-less Wolves welcome Kings to Twin Cities

Basketball Betting Lines

02/07/2012 - (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - The Minnesota Timberwolves will be without star forward Kevin Love for the next two games because of a suspension and will move on tonight versus the Sacramento Kings from the Target Center.

Love was slapped with a two-game penalty for stomping on Houston's Luis Scola during the third quarter of a 100-91 victory on Saturday. The incident occurred in the third quarter when Love drove his foot into the upper body of Scola, who was lying on the floor. The league office also upgraded the foul to a Flagrant Two. Love, who went into the locker room following Saturday's game to apologize, made a public apology Monday after the suspension was announced.

"I want to publicly apologize to Luis Scola and the Houston Rockets," Love said in a statement. "My intention is to never hurt another player on the basketball court. I've always had the utmost respect for the game of basketball and all of my opponents. I also apologize to my coaches, teammates and our fans for the consequences of my actions."

Love will sit out Tuesday against Sacramento and Wednesday against Memphis. He leads the Wolves with averages of 25.0 points and 13.7 rebounds in 24 games this season.

The Wolves have won two straight and five of their last seven games, and reached the .500 mark with that win over Houston. Love had 25 points and 18 rebounds, while Luke Ridnour added 22 points and rookie Ricky Rubio finished with 13 points and 11 assists. Minnesota improved to 6-8 in the Twin Cities.

Sacramento will try to extend its season-high winning streak to four games when it closes out a brief two-game road trip Tuesday. It posted its third straight win last night with a 100-92 victory at New Orleans, as DeMarcus Cousins registered 28 points and 19 rebounds to lead the charge.

"I just wanted to go out and help our team get this win tonight," said Cousins. "Put all the stats aside, the main thing is we got the win tonight and that's all that matters."

Tyreke Evans and rookie Isaiah Thomas had 20 and 17 points, respectively, for the Kings, who got 12 points from Marcus Thornton and 10 out of John Salmons.

After tonight's game the Kings will return to California's capital for a pair of games and will then head east for a six-game road trip.

Cousins has recorded 16 double-doubles this season, third-most in the NBA this season behind Love and Dwight Howard. Cousins should be able to post his 17th with Love out of the lineup tonight.

The Kings suffered a 99-86 loss at Minnesota on Jan. 16 this season. Love had 33 points and 11 rebounds, while Cousins posted only 10 points and three assists. The Wolves have won four of the last seven games in this series.

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Big East Conference odds

Work left to do: Villanova, Syracuse, DePaul, West Virginia, Providence

Notre Dame and Louisville appear to have done enough to make the move, so we'll make them locks. The Cardinals, despite a modest RPI, are trending way up and have clinched at least a tie for third in the Big East, which should be more than enough with their pair of big road wins. Villanova got back to .500 and gets back to more solid footing. Syracuse got a very important road win and crippled a fellow contender in the process. West Virginia's fate could be in its hands Tuesday at Pitt.

Work left to do:

Villanova [18-9 (7-7), RPI: 21, SOS: 5] Pounded Rutgers to get back to .500. If Cats can get their last two (at UConn, vs. Syracuse), that should be enough with strong computer numbers and a host of wins away from The Pavilion. The Cats have beaten Texas and swept the Big 5 (never easy in Philly), but have a couple of losses to bubble teams (Xavier, Drexel), too. I still think they'll be OK, possibly even at 8-8.

Syracuse [20-8 (9-5), RPI: 53, SOS: 62] History says 10 wins will be plenty, but it might be hard for the Orange to get that last one with a final two vs. G'town, which is trying to win the league title, and at Villanova, which will be desperate for a W. The relative lack of nonconference heft and the weak computer numbers are still concerns, but the Orange have won four in a row and got a very, very big win at Providence on Saturday.

DePaul [16-12 (8-7), RPI: 54, SOS: 18] Beat Cincy and should get past South Florida to get to 9-7, but then what? They have beaten Kansas and Cal (right after the DeVon Hardin injury) earlier this season, but also have lost to Bradley and Purdue, among others. They'll likely need a couple of BE tourney wins, too, but we'll see ...

West Virginia [19-7 (8-6), RPI: 58, SOS: 125] The game at Pitt on Tuesday night could decide the Mountaineers' fate (barring a deep tournament run). They can still get to 9-7 in the Big East without it by beating Cincinnati, but the nine wins would be against UConn, Villanova, St. John's, South Florida, DePaul, Rutgers, Seton Hall twice and the Bearcats. Beating bubble foes is fine, but where's the beef? Outside of beating PG-less UCLA in nonconference play (still a top quality win), there's not a lot to fall back on (besides maybe NC State). WVU vs. Syracuse would be an interesting debate, as the teams don't play in the Big East regular season. WVU has the best win, but Cuse has played the much better schedule.

Providence [17-10 (7-7), RPI: 70, SOS: 33] The Friars likely saw their at-large hopes die at home in the four-point loss to Syracuse, barring an unexpected run to the Big East semis or more. The RPI, bad already, won't be helped by playing St. John's and South Florida in the final two league games.

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