With less than 10 seconds left in Saturday night's game, Joe Smith had one thing on his mind: "I did not want to let him score.''

So the Timberwolves' forward raced to the baseline, got a hand on Phoenix forward Shawn Marion's shot and atoned for his errant inbounds pass that gave the ball to Marion in the first place.

For that moment, at least, Smith focused completely on basketball ? something that's been noticeably difficult for him since a 20-year-old female cousin was shot and killed in Virginia last month.

Now the Wolves are hoping that focus will carry over ? to both tonight's game at Golden State and to the playoffs, which begin in less than two weeks.

"It's been very emotional,'' Smith said after Minnesota's 108-104 victory over the Suns. "I just try, as much as possible, not to think about anything that happened off the court. ? But a lot of times I was going out there with a lot of things on my mind, and tonight I just tried to clear everything and focus on what I had to do.''

After returning from his cousin's funeral six games ago, Smith was benched in favor of veteran Sam Mitchell. Since then, Smith has averaged only 4.3 points and two rebounds in 14.2 minutes, compared with his season averages of 10.9 points, 6.4 rebounds and 27.3 minutes.