Greetings. Youngblood here. I was at practice today as Jerry made his way to New Jersey.
Injury-riddled Wolves head to New Jersey
Love, Milicic not making the trip; Wolves assistant Theus contacted by UNLV
First, the news: Kevin Love (strained groin) and Darko Milicic (ankle) both missed practice today and neither made the trip with the team. That means the Wolves with go with the same small lineup (Beasley at power forward, Johnson at small forward, Ellington at shooting guard) that played so well in Memphis.
That last part was a joke.
For that small lineup to work the players will have to do a heck of a better job rebounding the ball and playing defense than they did in Memphis Saturday, when the Grizzlies dominated the boards and got tons of second-chance points. I'd also add that the team needs to cut down on turnovers, but that's been an on-going issue for so long it almost goes without saying.
Meanwhile, Wolves coach Kurt Rambis said it was his understanding that assistant coach Reggie Theus has been contacted about the coaching vacancy at UNLV. Rambis didn't know whether a meeting had been set up. Theus declined comment. Theus, who starred at UNLV, has been called a leading candidate by the Las Vegas Review-Journal.
One last item: Backup point guard Sebastian Telfair, who missed Saturday's game tending to a personal issue, was not at practice, but will meet the team in New Jersey.
But back to Love. Love wasn't making the trip, so he had some time to talk with reporters. He said he wanted to play again this season, but id doesn't look like that could happen until the Denver-Phoenix road trip later in the week. The Wolves host Phoenix on Wednesday, and Love said he'd like to get in at least one practice before returning to game action.
Love was also asked, and discussed, a lot of issues going forward. He talked about what the team needed to do to improve (including adding veteran leadership and improving guard play) , talked about his future in Minnesota (where he would ideally like to say) and reiterated his support of coach Rambis. I'll be writing more on this for tomorrow's paper.
That's about it for now. Have a good night.
Bailey Ober gave up just one hit through seven scoreless innings, but Kansas City scored four runs off the Twins bullpen to push Minnesota further back in the standings.