Support » Wiggins scored 35 points and tied a career high with 10

RENTON, Wash. -- Just as the Seattle Seahawks are evolving offensively and appearing to find success, they have another problem emerging.In the last few weeks, Seattle cant get off the field on defense. And its not the best time to be struggling on that side of the ball about to go on the road, on a short week and face Tom Brady and New England on Sunday night.In the past two weeks, Seattle has started to display signs that maybe the wear of its overtime tie with Arizona on Oct. 23 is starting to impact its defense. Combined with an offense that seems to be abandoning their attempt at running the ball and controlling time of possession, the Seahawks defense has been asked to be on the field for an inordinate amount of time lately.Were playing a little bit more ball but at the same time I think were doing some good things, Seattle defensive end Cliff Avril said.While the players say this is not an issue and Seattle coach Pete Carroll is almost defiant that the amount of time the defense has spent on the field is a benefit, the statistics are telling a different story.And the biggest indicator is on third downs.Weve had 13 third-and-2 or less in the last two weeks. Thats really hard to win like you would like to on third down, Carroll said. We have to play better ball on earlier downs and then we have to get off when we have our chances. But it has been kind of a theme here allowing these third-and-shorts and not getting out of those. Thats really the focus.Over the past three weeks -- games against Arizona, New Orleans and Buffalo -- the Seahawks have allowed 31 of 53 third downs to be converted, a conversion rate of 58.4 percent. Buffalo was 12 of 17 against Seattle on Monday night and had 30 first downs, tied for the seventh-most ever against the Seahawks in the regular season. The inability to get off the field on third down, combined with the Seahawks own struggling to run the ball and sustain drives has led to three straight teams with 36 or more minutes of possession against the Seahawks.Arizona got it started when it dominated possession in the 6-6 overtime tie. The Cardinals held the ball for 46:21 and ran 90 offensive plays. New Orleans followed up a week later with 72 plays and 36 minutes of possession and on Monday night, Buffalo ran 82 offensive plays and held the ball for 40 minutes.Its a recipe for exhaustion, even if Carroll doesnt view it that way.I think were getting stronger, he said. If weve endured it, I think were in pretty good shape. If we can get a game of 60 or 70 plays, its going to seem like a lark. Well see if we can change it a little bit.The timing of the struggles on defense is troubling because the Seahawks appear to be morphing offensively and potentially exposing their defenders to even more time on the field. Seattle enters this week 30th in the NFL averaging just 75.4 yards per game rushing and in Mondays win had 26 passes and just 12 runs. No matter who is in the backfield, Seattle has been unable to establish the run and keep drives moving on the ground. Seattle has one offensive drive of longer than 6 minutes in the past five games and rank 25th in the league in time of possession.We have a lot of improvement to make and were just going to keep banging away at it, Carroll said. We know where were going, were just not quite getting on that track yet.Game notes SS Kam Chancellor (groin) was a full participant in practice and is expected to play Sunday as long as he doesnt have any setbacks. Chancellor has missed the past four games. ... RB Thomas Rawls (leg) was a limited participant in practice Wednesday but wont play this week. Rawls, who has been out since Week 2, is targeting next weeks game against Philadelphia for his return.---For more NFL coverage: http://www.pro32.ap.org and http://www.twitter.com/AP-NFL Air Max 1 Clearance .com) - Manchester City midfielder David Silva is expected to miss the next four weeks because of a calf problem. Cheap Air Max 1 Wholesale . -- Mike Smith never saw his first NHL goal go in. http://www.wholesaleairmax1canada.com/ . The formidable trio of Canadian receivers -- individually known as Chris Getzlaf, Rob Bagg and Andy Fantuz -- will share the field at Mosaic Stadium one more time on Sunday. Cheap Air Max 1 Canada . -- The Missouri Tigers might not have a roster full of superstars. Wholesale Air Max 1 . Mickelson barely made the cut but had the best round of the day with nine birdies and an eagle coupled with two bogeys to sit two shots behind leader Craig Lee of Scotland. Lee shot a 69 for a 12-under 204 total. "I just love the fact I am in contention and have an opportunity in my first tournament of the year here in Abu Dhabi," Mickelson said. This early in the NBA season, its hard for teams to get familiar with each other. The Minnesota Timberwolves and Memphis Grizzlies are the exception.The two teams play in Memphis for the second time this season on Saturday night. It will be third regular-season meeting after Minnesota and Memphis also met in the preseason. The two teams have split the first two regular-season games, each winning on its home court.The Grizzlies (7-5) will be happy to head home after finishing a four-game road trip in Dallas on Friday night. Memphis finished the road trip with three straight wins after beating the Mavericks 80-64.I was happy to see our defense, Grizzlies coach David Fizdale said. I always tell the guys our defense will travel. Your offense dont always get on the plane with you. But our defense was really stingy tonight.Parsons return to Dallas was one of Fridays storylines. The familiarity between teams played a part in the first half, in which neither team scored more than 19 points in the first two quarters.We stopped being friendly, Fizdale said. If you watched the first quarter, everybody was having conversations with the other team like they were all pals. And we dont have the luxury to be buddies.I think we took it light, like thinking they didnt have their players, but this (Mavericks) is an NBA team with NBA players. We didnt show them respect by playing like that. So I got after them pretty good and they came out in the second half and got after it.Familiarity with Minnesota could breed contempt.The Timberwolves (4-7) opened the season at Memphis and led by as many as 17 early before losing 102-98 as the Grizzlies charged back. Minnesota won the second game handily 116-80 at home as Memphis rested point guard Mike Conley and center Marc Gasol.Fizdale didnt play any of his starters more than 32 minutes on Fridaay with the back-to-back scheduled against the Timberwolves.ddddddddddddMemphis also got guard Tony Allen back after he missed four games with a strained right groin. Allen scored 11 points off the bench in Fridays win.Well have to wait and see how I feel tomorrow, Allen said. I thought I did a good job of icing and stretching. Ill get some rest tonight and see how I feel tomorrow.Minnesota has won three of its past five games, including Thursdays 110-86 dismantling of Philadelphia in which three players posted double-doubles. Andrew Wiggins scored 35 points and tied a career high with 10 rebounds. Karl-Anthony Towns had 25 points and 10 rebounds, and Gorgui Dieng added 12 points and 10 rebounds.I think we character this game as a point in the road that we have to look back and we have to understand and grow from this, Towns said. We held them to, I think, 33 points in the first half. Thats very good for us to do. Weve got to do a better job from here on out, especially in the third quarter.The Timberwolves started Friday as the sixth-highest scoring team in the league. They were also the highest-scoring team in the first quarter. But theyve been the worst in the third quarter, blowing several leads along the way.Wiggins has been the biggest factor in Minnesotas offensive surge. He has scored more than 30 points in three of his past six games. During that stretch, Wiggins has scored 33 points, grabbed 5.3 rebounds and passed out 3.5 assists per game. He shot 50.7 percent from the field while taking 22.67 shots per game.There were times last year where I just drifted to the corner and stayed there, Wiggins said. I think Im just being more active. My awareness is higher. Im just doing more. ' ' '