Sorry this is belated…computer/internet problems last night, travel and other work today and then, well, I simply forgot.

The  Wolve’ losing streak is at five games, a length they reached or surpassed nine times last season when they went 22-60.

Randy Wittman vows that won’t be repeated this season if the Wolves played as they did Saturday night, when they discovered interest and intensity on the defensive, remembered to get the ball consistently to Al Jefferson down the stretch, put five players in double-figure scoring…and still lost when Brandon Roy once again took over with the ball in his hands in the final 63 seconds

It didn’t help either that they allowed the opponent way too many offensive rebounds — 16 this time. That was one reason — and young forward LaMarcus Aldridge was a big part of that — the Blazers awakened from a 12-point, second-quarter deficit.

Kevin Love’s homecoming wasn’t exactly memorable, except for the whack in the nose (doesn’t that happen every game?) early in the game and when they showed on the big scoreboard his father, Stan, seated courtside and the hometown fans booed him enthusiastically: Didn’t make a shot, 0-for-7, including a putback in the final 15 seconds that was one of three he and Jefferson put up in succession that bounced all around and did everything but fall through.

For last night’s Internet-only account of the game, see http://www.startribune.com/sports/wolves/34150129.html?elr=KArksLckD8EQDUoaEyqyP4O:DW3ckUiD3aPc:_Yyc:aUUF 

Last night’s game reminds me how quickly, almost on one draft night, that Portland GM Kevin Pritchard turned that franchise around. In one night in 2006, he made several trades and acquired three players — Aldridge, picked second after a swap with the Chicago Bulls, Roy, picked sixth by the Wolves and then acquried in that famous trade with the Wolves for Randy Foye, and then a later pick to get Spanish guard Rudy Fernandez.

It sure didn’t hurt, either, that the Blazers got lucky the next year and with virtually the same percentage chance at the Wolves,   landed the No. 1 pick and Greg Oden, whom the Wolves still haven’t faced yet more than a year into his pro career.

On a different topic, one funny sight from Oakland, where the Wolves play the Warriors Tuesday, this afternoon: I walked outside my hotel into a rather worn area of downtown Oakland (is that redundant?) and on my way back just outside the hotel I saw a large figure with his back to me pacing the sidewalk in the sunshine, smoking a cigar. It was, of all people, Don Nelson, hanging outside a bus waiting for his team to file out of a mid-afternoon shootaround at the Warriors’ practice facility, which is part of Oakland’s downtown convention center, on their way to Sacramento for a Sunday night game, which the Warriors lost 115-98 to fall to 2-5.

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