Good thing a player gets 10 personal fouls in a Las Vegas summer-league game.

“I had four in, like, two minutes,” Kevin Love said after he made his Timberwolves debut on the UNLV campus with a performance that started with a stutter and grew strong.

The Wolves, playing their first game against a Mavericks team that had already lost twice, led 10-4 before you knew it. Love also had those four fouls before you knew it for a summer-league team that lacks size, scoring and good guards.

“I’m still learning a lot,” Love said afterward. “A couple of the fouls, I was trying to take a charge. Another one, I was on the pick and roll and I was hitting them with my hip. I’d ask certain questions of the refs because these are the guys who are going to be in the league with us next year. It’s going to be a learning curve. I just need to be able to adjust to it.”

The Mavs scored 29 of the next 33 points after the Wolves held that brief 10-4 lead. Love played better as the game progressed, matching his eight first-half points with that many in the third quarter alone and finishing with 18 points, 13 rebounds, five turnovers and six fouls. He shot 7 for 13 from the field and 4 for 7 from the line.

“Kind of uncharacteristic for me,” Love said of his free-throw shooting.

His passing skills didn’t show but only a few times. Wait, though, until he starts playing with a full lineup of real NBA players.

Love said he needed the time to get “the jitters out” and realize he’s now an NBA player.

“I just had to slow down, midway through the second quarter I did that: Get to the line, things like that,” Love said.

Slowing down, that, too, is what the Wolves coaches want Corey Brewer to do. He did everything but shoot the ball well in his summer-league debut a year ago, his 27-percent shooting indicative of shooting woes that followed him all season. Last night, he made his first two jumpers, but finished 5 for 18 for 11 points.

“He got out of control again a couple of times,” said Wolves assistant coach Jerry Sichting, who coached the game. “He shot the ball a little better earlier. I tried to stress this upon our guys before the game, but it’s difficult in a summer-league situation to play in the confines of the offense and not search for your shot too much. We had two or three guys who tried to do that a little bit and that’s where we got out of sync in the first half.”

Before the game, Wolves head coach Randy Wittman said he has challenged second-year forward Chris Richard, telling him he is capable of leading the summer league in rebounding. After a slow start, Richard finished with seven rebounds, the same number as Brewer and six fewer than Love.

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