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MINNEAPOLIS -- Shawn Marion was getting to the rim at will, knocking down 3-pointers and playing tough defence. Milan Lucic Jersey . Even if the Minnesota Timberwolves think his defence was a little too tough on the last shot of the game, there was no disputing that "The Matrix" was back for Dallas on Monday night. Marion scored 32 points, hit two huge 3-pointers in the fourth quarter and swatted away Kevin Loves 21-foot jumper at the buzzer to help the Mavericks outlast the Timberwolves in a 100-98 victory. The Mavs led by 19 late in the first half and seven with 3 minutes to play, but the Wolves had the ball down two in the closing seconds. Love got the ball in the corner and rose up for a 3-pointer, but Marion swooped in and swatted it away as Love looked for a foul. None was called. "Heh, heh. It was not a foul," Marion said. The Timberwolves disagreed. "He got fouled," Minnesota coach Rick Adelman said. "I wonder what that would have been if (Dirk) Nowitzki, LeBron James, all the top players in the league -- a guy reaches on a last-second shot like that, instead of challenging it. Maybe they dont understand that Kevin is one of the top five players in this league. You make that call. But they didnt." Love, who had 36 points, 11 rebounds and four assists, stood watching the scoreboard in disbelief, and the Mavericks walked off the court winners against the Wolves for the first time in three tries this season. "Im the type of person that if you see a foul, an obvious foul, you call it," Love said. "And I thought that was pretty, pretty obvious. ... You look at the replay and it was obvious he got arm." Nowitzki had 16 points for the Mavericks, who led by 19 late in the first half before the Wolves came back. But this win was all Marion. He topped 30 points in a game for the first time since the 2008-09 season, and made 14 of 19 shots to go with six rebounds and three assists. "Im all about winning games, man," Marion said. "Whatever it takes." After the Timberwolves were down 19 at halftime, Love shot 6 of 8 in the third quarter and the Wolves outscored Dallas 38-21 to tie the game heading into the fourth. Adelman, however, might have stuck with a struggling J.J. Barea too long in the final period. Rather than going back to Ricky Rubio during a timeout with just more than 5:30 to play, Adelman kept Barea, who had five turnovers in 17 minutes, on the floor. Thats when Marion hit two of his four 3s for a 97-90 lead with 3:04 to play. "Shawn was the key to the game, no question about it," Mavericks coach Rick Carlisle said. "If were giving out game balls, itd be two game balls in a row for him. Activity was great. Played both ends of the floor. Didnt run one play for him. He just produced." Nowitzki finished the run with a baseline jumper, the original "Stretch 4" finding a way to best the newest version in Love. The Wolves had beaten the Mavericks soundly in the first two meetings of the season, so Dallas came in with some extra motivation. And the Wolves woeful defence did little to deter the Mavericks. Dallas shot 60 per cent in the first half and scored 34 of its 62 points in the paint, with Love, Nikola Pekovic and the rest of the Wolves defence just letting the Mavericks parade to the rim. Marion scored 21 points and hit 10 of his 12 shots -- most from within 5 feet -- in the first half. Nowitzki threw down a rare dunk to get his teammates off the bench and give the Mavs a 60-41 lead late in the second quarter. The loss followed a pattern for the Wolves, who were trying to climb over .500 for the fifth time in December. They were 0-4 in their previous four tries, having shot 39 per cent while allowing their opponents to shoot 52 per cent. Pekovic had 18 points and 10 rebounds and Rubio had four points, 13 assists, nine rebounds and three steals for Minnesota. NOTES: Brandan Wright had 14 points off the bench for Dallas. ... Injured Wolves Fs Chase Budinger (knee) and Ronny Turiaf (elbow) played 3-on-3 at the morning shootaround. There is still no timetable for their return. ... Rubio picked up his 1,000th career assist in the first quarter. Phil Esposito Jersey . Its been two seasons in one for both parties and neither will look back on the first 18 games fondly. "I think I took the fall for a lot of things," said Gay, reflecting on his short time in Toronto ahead of Wednesdays game against his former club. David Backes Bruins Jersey . Hamilton signed offensive linemen Mike Filer, Joel Reinders, Landon Rice and Carson Rockhill. http://www.cheapbruinsjerseys.info/authentic-gerry-cheevers-bruins-jersey/ . On Wednesday night, they showed that stellar defence and a little small ball can get the job done too. With pinch-runner Kevin Pillar aboard after Dioner Navarro opened the bottom of the ninth with a single, Anthony Gose dropped down an excellent bunt along the first-base line.Over the winter, we wrote about the Blue Jays coming to terms with a pair of pitchers who were trying to become knuckleballers. They were Josh Banks and Tomo Ohka. Banks had been a Blue Jays draft pick who had a brief stint with the club in 2007 before moving on to San Diego and then Houston, compiling a career record of 4-8. The other was Ohka, a journeyman from Japan who spent time with six organizations, including the Blue Jays in 2007, where he went 2-5. Ohka, who turns 38 next week, was already sent to the minor league camp last week. Now there is a third. Hes 30-year-old Frank Viola III. If the name is familiar, it should be. Hes the son of former big league star lefty, Frank Viola Jr. Frank Jr. had a very good career, predominantly with the Twins and the Mets. He was the MVP of the 1987 World Series - the Twins first win ever - and won the Cy Young Award in the American League the following season - his final full season with the Twins with a 24-7 season. Frank "Sweet Music" Viola, as he was affectionately known, is a member of the Twins Hall of Fame. Viola actually finished off his major league career in a short stop over with the Blue Jays in 1996. He went 1-3 for the Jays and ended his career on May 28 of that year. His son chased that major league dream as well and pitched in the White Sox organization thtough 2007 before injuries appeared to cut his career short. He dabbled in the media doing Florida State League games and even had his own fishing show, but Viola III never gave up his dream of pitching in the majors. The next step was trying to master the knuckleball. He worked with the likes of R,A Dickey, Tim Wakefield and Hall of Famer Phil Niekro and finally impressed the Blue Jays enough that they signed him last week. This doesnt necessarily mean the 30-year-old will make it to the big club. The Jays game plan is to have a knuckleballer or two in the minors to work with their catching prospects. That way, if they get called up to the Jays theyll be ready to work with Dickey without any major adjustment. Still, it would be great to see one of these knuckleballers eventually make it to the majors. Frank Viola Jr. incidentally is entering his second season as the pitching coach with the Mets Triple A farm club, the Las Vegas 51s. After writing about the passing of Dr. Frank Jobe, the man who pioneered Tommy John surgery last week, I discovered another interesting twist to the Tommy John story. Ray Bourque Jersey. Back in 1968, in a game at old Tiger Stadium, John was pitching against Detroit. In the first inning he hit Dick McAuliffe with a pitch. He later scored on an RBI single by Al Kaline. When McAuliffe came up again in the third, threw one pitch high and tight and then a 3-2 pitch behind McAuliffes head that sent him sprawling in the dirt. When he got up he dusted himself off and started to head to first glancing out towards John. McAuliffe claims that John taunted him by saying "What the F are you looking at?" That was the final straw for McAuliffe and he charged the mound. John got into a defensive position and the knee of the charging McAuliffe dug into Johns left shoulder. He suffered a separated shoulder and torn shoulder ligaments and missed the rest of the season. McAuliffe was suspended for five games and was fined $250.00. The interesting thing about John is that he resisted the advice to have surgery and let the shoulder heal with rest and rehab. The plan worked, though it took a while for John to get back to peak efficiency. 1974 was different. When Tommy John blew out his elbow, he said his arm simply felt dead. This time he agreed to surgery, which not only changed his career but revolutionized baseball in terms of treating this type of elbow injury. The Detroit Tigers have made history over the last three years, winning five of the six major awards handed out. They have won three straight MVP awards - the last two by Miguel Cabrerra and three straight Cy Young awards. The Tigers have made the postseason in each of the last three years. The only other time the organization did that was in the hay day of Ty Cobb in 1907, 1908 and 1909 when they dropped three straight World Series - two to the Cubs and one to the Pirates. This season under rookie manager Brad Ausmus, they will be trying to make the playoffs for the fourth straight time and for the first time in franchise history. Over the weekend, Tigers GM Dave Dumbrowski denied rumours he was listening to offers for starting pitcher Rick Porcello. In fact, he denied trying to trade any of his starters. But considering the Tigers have question marks at 3rd base and left field, you have to wonder a bit. Its still a bit too early to get too excited or too worried about this but Baltimore is 8-2 so far this spring and is scoring nearly eight runs-again, even without a rehabbing Manny Machado (knee) at full strength. ' ' '