| 28 February 2010
Up next: a March schedule that batters Minnesota with 13 of their next 14 games against playoff contenders, a gantlet of opponents that are a combined 139 games above .500 entering Saturday. Yes, February could be remembered as the good times.
"I told them it will be a challenge for them, but to take this opportunity to learn about themselves," Rambis said. "The teams we are facing will be intense, committed."
He added that the Wolves then need to use that to their advantage for the rest of the year, rather than wasting away the season: "Look at it as our playoff environment."
He's seen a lot of losing teams quit a month early, but Rambis said he senses none of that here. Neither do the players.
"I told them it will be a challenge for them, but to take this opportunity to learn about themselves," Rambis said. "The teams we are facing will be intense, committed."
He added that the Wolves then need to use that to their advantage for the rest of the year, rather than wasting away the season: "Look at it as our playoff environment."
He's seen a lot of losing teams quit a month early, but Rambis said he senses none of that here. Neither do the players.
Rambis, deciding that his thin bench needed some extra punch, shifted Love from the starting lineup to coming off the bench a little more than a month ago.
My initial thoughts about the move was Rambis decided that he couldn't maximize the talent of Love and Al Jefferson, who play a similar type of game, with both players on the court at the same time. But Love's numbers - averaging a double double - made it look like a curious move.
I saw Love during All-Star Weekend in Dallas, and I asked him about the change. He wasn't happy and said he was surprised. But he played the good soldier, said all the right things and accepted the decision.
My initial thoughts about the move was Rambis decided that he couldn't maximize the talent of Love and Al Jefferson, who play a similar type of game, with both players on the court at the same time. But Love's numbers - averaging a double double - made it look like a curious move.
I saw Love during All-Star Weekend in Dallas, and I asked him about the change. He wasn't happy and said he was surprised. But he played the good soldier, said all the right things and accepted the decision.
Darko Milicic, center: The oft-discarded big man made his way to Minnesota, his fifth team, threw on a Wolves jersey and put up a respectable eight-point, eight-rebound night Sunday. He followed that up with a three-block effort in the victory over Miami.
D'Antoni pulled the plug on Darko in mid-November and feels Darko shut it down from there instead of fighting to get back in. D'Antoni said Milicic was the one who came to him in December and asked to be deactivated if he was not going to play.
In December, Milicic told The Post he could "practice like bleeping Michael Jordan'' and it wouldn't have mattered.
D'Antoni cracked this morning, "Yeah he was. What is Michael? About 59?.''
In December, Milicic told The Post he could "practice like bleeping Michael Jordan'' and it wouldn't have mattered.
D'Antoni cracked this morning, "Yeah he was. What is Michael? About 59?.''
The Wolves locker room has a marker board on which the game's matchup assignments are scribbled every night. It also includes such motivational messages as "Must take the game to them!"
It does not have a place for press clippings.
"We don't have a bulletin board or anything like that," Wolves guard Corey Brewer said. "That's not the way Kurt motivates. In college [at Florida] my coaches would do that. They'd have all kinds of stuff up. They'd let you know when another team's coach says something."
It does not have a place for press clippings.
"We don't have a bulletin board or anything like that," Wolves guard Corey Brewer said. "That's not the way Kurt motivates. In college [at Florida] my coaches would do that. They'd have all kinds of stuff up. They'd let you know when another team's coach says something."
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