Richardson leads Bobcats past T-Wolves 100-90

Jason Richardson scored 25 points in another strong performance following arthroscopic knee surgery, and the Charlotte Bobcats beat the error-prone Minnesota Timberwolves 100-90 on Monday night.

It was the third straight game of at least 21 points for Richardson since his return after sitting out seven contests following the exploratory surgery on his right knee. He led an efficient offense that included a season-high 24 points from Emeka Okafor and 14 assists and just one turnover for Raymond Felton.

Randy Foye scored 23 points and Mike Miller added 19 points and 10 rebounds for the Timberwolves, who were never in sync in their second straight loss. Top scorer Al Jefferson was held to just eight points on 3-of-11 shooting and Minnesota committed 14 of its 18 turnovers in the first half.

It was the end to a bad day for the Timberwolves, who learned in the morning that top defender Corey Brewer would miss the rest of the season with a torn anterior cruciate ligament in his right knee.

With Bobcats part-owner Michael Jordan back in his courtside seat for a second straight game following a two-week absence, Charlotte took the lead for good on Richardson's reverse alley-oop dunk on a feed from D.J. Augustin midway through the second quarter.

Felton's jumper early in the third quarter made it 53-41, and the Bobcats withstood a brief rally that got the Timberwolves within five entering the fourth quarter.

Charlotte, slowly improving on offense after a terrible beginning under first-year coach Larry Brown, pulled away in the final period. Richardson's spectacular, spinning alley-oop dunk on Felton's assist made it 84-70 with 6:16 left.

The Bobcats committed only 10 turnovers, and Felton didn't throw the ball away for the first time until just over 2 minutes remained. Felton also scored 14 points, and Gerald Wallace scored 15. Okafor also had 10 rebounds.

It was an impressive start as the Bobcats improved to 6-11 in the beginning of a favorable portion of their schedule. The Bobcats host Oklahoma City (2-16) on Wednesday and visit Milwaukee (7-12) on Friday.

The Timberwolves never had a shot with Jefferson struggling. In his first game in Charlotte since scoring a career-high 40 in April, Jefferson added nine rebounds and blocked six shots, but couldn't contribute on offense.

Notes:@ Minnesota G Kevin Ollie returned after missing six games with a strained right calf, finishing with six points in 13 minutes. ... Brown said before the game he'd like the NBA to work on increasing the number of shots teams take. "I watch the old-time teams play and if you didn't take 100 shots in a game, it's a bad offensive outing," Brown said. Charlotte took 80 shots and Minnesota 75. ... The loudest cheer by the tiny crowd of 9,285 may have been during a third-quarter timeout, when Carolina RB DeAngelo Williams was shown on the video board, a day after scoring four touchdowns in the Panthers' win at Green Bay.