By Anthony Maggio
FOXSportsNorth.com
January 11, 2011
Ken Mauer put the "T" in T-Wolves Tuesday night at Target Center.
The Minnesota native and cousin of Minnesota Twins catcher Joe Mauer passed out five technical fouls in a 12-second stretch during the third quarter of the Minnesota Timberwolves' 107-96 loss to the San Antonio Spurs, handing coach Kurt Rambis his first ejection of the season in the process.
The timing couldn't have been worse for Minnesota, which had just cut its deficit to six points after trailing by as many as 16 in the first half. San Antonio hit all five of its free throws during the tech-fest, and never led by fewer than seven points the rest of the way.
"I think that's part of where it turned," forward Kevin Love said. "There's a point in the game where you want to do that to motivate the team. I think Kurt was definitely trying to motivate the team. With a couple of the players' technicals, who knows? That did hurt us."
A foul on Darko Milicic with 8:39 left in the third quarter set the stage for the rapid-fire technicals, as Milicic pushed Mauer to the brink with his outburst while he ran toward the Wolves' bench and away from the officials upon being whistled for his fourth foul.
Three seconds later came another whistle, this one on Corey Brewer, and then came the Mauer show.
Brewer jumped up and yelled, while Milicic
