MINNEAPOLIS _ Called a game-time decision whether he'd even play or not, former Timberwolves point guard Ricky Rubio returned to Target Center on Sunday and shot his Utah Jazz team to a lopsided 121-97 victory over his former team in just what might have been the biggest game this season for both teams.
With playoff spots and positioning on the line, Rubio made his first four 3-point attempts, he shot 9-for-14 from the field and scored 23 points for a Jazz team that now is 25-5 in last 30 games.
By winning, Utah moved past the Wolves in the Western Conference on a night when the Wolves slid from fifth place to seventh after both the Jazz and Oklahoma City won in a playoff race that has been dizzying close for seven teams chasing five spots.
The Jazz did so before a dissatisfied Target Center audience announced at 18,978, the 15th sellout of the season. That equals the most sellouts since the Wolves had 23 in their second season at Target Center, the 1992-92 season.
The Wolves on Sunday led 9-2 early and trailed by as many as 29 points in the fourth quarter against a Jazz team that won the season series _ and a potential playoff tiebreaker between the teams _ by winning three of four games between the teams.
They did with Rubio's shooting and scoring, of all things.
Traded away last summer in part because his offensive game wasn't dependable enough to pressure opposing defenses, Rubio played Sunday only after he warmed up and he determined his sore hamstring that sidelined him Friday against Memphis.
Then he went out and made the first four 3-point shots he attempted and six of his first 10 shots from the field as well on a night when he scored 16 of his points by halftime.
He did so against a Wolves team that played without starting point guard Jeff Teague, who essentially was swapped for Rubio last summer not in a trade but in a free-agent signing with cap space freed by trading away Rubio.
Teague did not play because of a sore knee in the first game between the teams since Teague, Wolves big man Karl-Anthony Towns and Utah's Jae Crowder all were ejected from a testy game won by the Jazz in Salt Lake City a month ago.
It was Rubio's leadership that helped turned Utah's season around after Jazz big man Rudy Gobert missed 26 games early in the season because of separate leg injuries.
Struck in the face late during a January game at Detroit, Rubio went to the locker room bleeding profusely, but had his gash glued rather than stitched. That decision allowed him to return to the game in time to help guide the Jazz to an overtime victory.
Two nights later, he made a 3-pointer that won a game in Toronto.
From there, the Jazz was off on an 11-game winning streak that led into All-Star break and reclaimed a season in which they started 19-28 and now are 44-33.
On Sunday, it was his composure and his scoring that in good part helped beat the Wolves.
By the time the Jazz led 108-85 with five minutes left in the game, Wolves coach Tom Thibodeau pulled Towns and Andrew Wiggins from the game and sent rookie Justin Patton into the game for his first minutes in the NBA.
Patton scored his first points in the final two minutes with a left-handed hook shot.
Wiggins led the Wolves with 23 points before he and Towns (20 points, 7 rebounds) went to the bench for the night.
