The Wolves are soon to be L.A. bound, where Jerry Zgoda awaits to cover tomorrow’s game against the Lakers. Before shipping off today, the Wolves went through a long, spirited practice. Or, at least it sounded spirited; the media is not allowed inside until the very end. So all we get is the soothing sounds of whistles and bouncing basketballs and the occasional, um, outburst from a player.

One thing that is evident, even from just watching players cool down: someone needs to buy Kevin Love a big shiny balloon or a puppy or something to cheer him up. Maybe getting back to L.A. today will do it; get back to his college roots and churn up some competitive fire. In any case, this kid is down right now. I almost felt bad asking him about the team’s struggles, because I didn’t want to add to his glum nature. But, alas, a reporter’s gotta do what a reporter’s gotta do And to Love’s credit, he didn’t dodge any question. He’s very open and honest about how much he’s reeling right now.

Nice moment between Love and Kevin McHale today. Mac sat him down and had a little chat about how he missed a lot of shots as a player, too. To which Love responded, “But you made a lot more than you missed, huh?” Love obviously got McHale’s point that everyone - even hall of famers - go through bad stretches.

Of course, Love then participated in an impromptu rotating one-on-one session in the paint with Al Jefferson, Jason Collins and Mark Madsen and - well, let’s just say Love didn’t fare too well. Oy.

What else …. McHale once again cringed at using Mike Miller as much as he did last night with that still-sore right ankle. His reaction after looking at the stat sheet a second time late last night and seeing 33 minutes for Miller? “Yikes!”

Miller, though, got through practice fine today and will play tomorrow. Perhaps just not as much.

Finally, your quote of the day courtesy of McHale: “That’s higher education on higher education right there … that’s higher education on Mississippi” — While watching Collins (Stanford) and Madsen (Stanford), and Collins and Jefferson (Prentiss HS) playing one-on-one, respectively.

This entry was posted on Saturday, December 13th, 2008 at 2:34 pm and is filed under Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.