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CHICAGO -- Both the Chicago Bulls and the Minnesota Timberwolves were missing their starting centres. The Timberwolves were able to overcome the adversity. Kevin Love scored 31 points to lead the Timberwolves over the Bulls 95-86 Monday night. Ronny Turiaf added 14 points for the Timberwolves, who snapped a seven-game losing streak to the Bulls and won for the fourth time in five games overall. Timberwolves centre Nikola Pekovic exited with a sore right Achilles tendon midway through the first quarter. Turiaf, who was averaging 2.3 points, scored a season high in his absence. "He stepped up when Pekovic went out, and he brings a lot," Timberwolves guard Ricky Rubio said. "He brought everything he had." The Bulls were also without their starting centre. Joakim Noah was sent home before the game due to an illness. Kirk Hinrich (strained right hamstring) missed his fourth straight game. "They had some people out too, but we knew it was going to be a physical game," Timberwolves coach Rick Adelman said. "We knew how they were going to play, and I thought we responded pretty well." Carlos Boozer had 20 points and 14 rebounds, and D.J. Augustin added 19 points for the Bulls. Pekovic, who was averaging 18.4 points and 9.3 rebounds, said he hopes his injury is not serious. The injury has been bothering Pekovic during the teams road trip, Adelman said. Pekovic had one point and one rebound in 6 minutes. In Pekovics absence, Turiaf grabbed seven rebounds and had his highest-scoring game since he scored 19 points on Jan. 11, 2011, for the New York Knicks against the Portland Trailblazers. "My goal this year, regardless of the situation, is just to go out there and have some fun," Turiaf said. "No matter how much or how little I play, I just want to have fun." The Bulls pulled within five with 1:29 left on Augustins 3-pointer but got no closer. Love answered with a layup with 1:10 remaining, and Corey Brewers dunk gave the Timberwolves an 88-79 lead with 57.4 seconds left. The Timberwolves improved to 2-11 on the road when scoring fewer than 109 points. Minnesota shot 46.6 per cent compared to the Bulls 37.6 per cent. "We need that," Love said. "We communicated really well and we definitely contested a lot of shots." Chicago had won four of five and is 10-4 in January. Chase Budinger added 12 points off the bench for Minnesota, and Brewer had 11. Jimmy Butler scored 16 points, and Mike Dunleavy and Taj Gibson each had 10 for the Bulls. Gibson started at centre in place of Noah and had eight points and seven rebounds at halftime before running into foul trouble in the second half. "Hes an All-Star. Youre going to feel it," Gibson said about the Bulls missing Noah. "He was playing real phenomenal. Hes one of the vocal leaders, rebounding, playing defence, controlling the offensive end and making plays for guys. "We got to keep pushing forward." The Timberwolves went cold in the third quarter as the Bulls outscored them 19-18 and pulled within five. Minnesota had one field goal in the final 7:38 of the period -- Budingers dunk with 34.9 seconds left. The Wolves led 72-65 heading into the fourth. The Bulls had won by an average of 13.3 points during their seven-game winning streak against the Timberwolves. Minnesota last won in Chicago on Jan. 3, 2009. "When you lose a guy like Jo your margin for error is smaller," Bulls coach Tom Thibodeau said about Noah. "We can get it done. Youve got to give Minnesota credit. Theyre playing real well right now. We can never lose sight of how hard we have to play. We cant play hard for 32 minutes. We have to play hard the whole game." NOTES: The Timberwolves ranked second in the NBA in scoring at 106.8 points per game coming in. The Bulls were holding opponents to 92.9 points per game, second in the league. ... 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He was invited to the Houston Texans rookie camp, but was not offered a contract. TORONTO -- The Toronto Raptors shocked many on the draft floor by going off the board and selecting Brazilian forward Bruno Caboclo with their 20th selection on Thursday night. But Raptors general manager Masai Ujiri said the pick didnt come out of nowhere. Ujiri said he had been tracking Caboclo since the 2013 Basketball Without Borders tournament, where he was named tournament MVP. "Bruno was one of our next guys and we decided we lost one (Tyler Ennis), were not going to lose the second one. We jumped on it," said Ujiri. "We felt like hes second on our board so lets get aggressive. "Hes a few years away, but hes a talent that I think, at the end of the day, we will be happy that we picked. Well develop him and were excited that we got a talent like that." Head coach Dwane Casey said that budding talent was something the team simply could not pass up. "There were some other guys on the board, but still with this young mans potential, I dont think the other guys on the board have the potential as high as Bruno and that was the deciding factor for us," Casey said. The Raptors, who had been linked to Ennis -- a point guard from Brampton, Ont. -- had to quickly shift their focus once the Syracuse product was selected 18th overall by the Phoenix Suns. With Ennis no longer available, Casey says Caboclo became Torontos clear choice. "(Caboclo) is one of those guys that we had to move and get him at 20 once we didnt have a chance to get Tyler Ennis," said Casey. "We had a program in place where we were going to try and get Tyler and Bruno. Once we couldnt move up and get Tyler, Bruno was the guy." Casey said Toronto was one of just three or four teams who knew of Caboclo, a native of Sao Paolo, but Phoenix was also in the mix. With the Suns holding the No. 27 pick, the Raptorss didnt feel Caboclo would drop to the 37th pick, where Toronto selected second.dddddddddddd "When you start to hear that the guy could be gone at certain places, we started to hear in the late first round," Ujiri said. "Sometimes it gets frustrating where you dont get the picks that you want and you lose a guy and that happened to us earlier." Toronto also picked DeAndre Daniels, a six-foot-nine forward out of UConn, with the 37th overall selection. The Raptors ended their draft by taking 6-4 guard Xavier Thames with the 59th pick, but quickly dealt him to the Brooklyn Nets for cash considerations. Caboclo, who will turn 19 in September, is a 6-8 swingman with a 7-7 wingspan. He spent the 2013-14 season with Pinheiros of the Brazilian league and played 16 games last year, scoring 4.9 points and grabbing 3.1 rebounds per game. "Hes one of those players with a tremendous amount of potential: athletic, wingspan, same wingspan as JaVale McGee," said Casey. "Hes raw, but again hes going to be a guy that develops in our program and grow and do a lot of things for us." The plan for Caboclo, who was en route to New York from Houston at the time of the Raptors pick, is to have him go to Los Angeles and work out with Raptors veterans DeMar DeRozan, Amir Johnson and Terrence Ross before heading to Las Vegas to participate in summer league action. "I think this development is important for him where hes getting used to the facilities, used to the training," Ujiri said. Caboclo is expected to fly to Toronto Friday. This isnt the first time Toronto has selected a Brazilian in the first round. In 2004, the Raptors used the eighth overall selection on Rafael Araujo, who spent two seasons with the Raptors from 2004-2006, averaging 2.9 points per game. ' ' '