Wolves need a rest after 118-95 thumping in Denver

Posted on October 10th, 2008 – 11:43 PM
By Jerry Zgoda

You should probably hope it was just dead legs and preseason fatigue that left the Wolves looking so lethargic in Friday’s runaway loss to the Nuggets. After all, it was their 11th consecutive day of work since training camp started; they’ll get a day off today, their first since the first morning of camp on Sept. 30.

The Nuggets played their preseason opener and were without injured star Carmelo Anthony.

The Wolves were just about out-everythinged from right from the start, and trailed by eight late in the first quarter, by 24 late in the second and by 25 in the third. Randy Wittman gave the first glimpse of the future by starting Kevin Love and Al Jefferson together for the first time and it was a tough, tough night for the rookie, despite his 10-point, 11-rebound, 5-turnover night.

Kenyon Martin absolutely abused him in the first quarter, scoring eight points in the first seven minutes. J. R. Martin told him to get that outlet-pass stuff out of here by picking a long one off intended for Mike Miller. And then, to top it all off, Love got smacked in the mouth in the fourth quarter but stayed in the game.

Afterward, Wittman said both Jefferson, coming back from that knee injury, and Love need to get in better shape.

Other thoughts, observations and tidbits:

Another sloppy night, with 19 turnovers. That follows 21 committed Monday in Milwaukee and 25 Wednesday against Oklahoma City. Love had five, Blake Ahearn had three in 23 minutes, four other players had two each.

When was the last time you saw this?: Corey Brewer clapping his hands and demanding the ball behind the three-point line. Never as a Wolf, that’s for sure. With his team down big in the second half, Brewer started firing and his confidence practically oozed. He made four of five three-point attempts and scored 18. In the three preseason games, he has made five threes, or two fewer than he made all last season. Guess what was the first word he used after the game: You got it, confidence.

Rashad McCants played just four minutes after hyperextending his elbow. No immediate word on how serious, or not, the injury is.

Craig Smith didn’t play for the second consecutive game because there’s still some swelling in that surgically repaired knee and it was deemed best to give him a couple days to recover.

Wittman wanted to rest Mike Miller and so the vet played fewer than 10 minutes.

Instead of Miller starting, Wittman started point guards Sebastian Telfair and Randy Foye against the Nuggets’ smallish backcourt of A.I. and Anthony Carter.  The two started 10 games together last season before Telfair suffered a season-ending ankle injury in March. Telfair had three steals, five assists, one turnover in nearly 33 minutes. Hard to tell how they looked together because the game got out of hand so quickly.

Calvin Booth, Brian Cardinal and, of course, Jason Collins are still out with injuries.

New Timberwolf David Harrison admits this might be his last chance to “resurrect” his career. When asked what he needs to prove now at age 26, the guy who was suspended by the NBA for five games last season for violating its anti-drug policy said, “That I’m not a pothead, I guess.”

He was quite candid in a conversation on Thursday. You can see his comments in Saturday’s paper

http://www.startribune.com/sports/wolves/30825394.html?elr=KArksi8cyaiUo8cyaiUiD3aPc:_Yyc:aULPQL7PQLanchO7DiU

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