Wolves notes: Rubio pain free, but is he ready for the season?

The Wolves will open the season Wednesday against the Lakers in Los Angeles with a point guard whose playing time the past seven months consists of three preseason games.

After being limited to 22 games last season by an ankle injury that ultimately required surgery in April, Ricky Rubio missed much of the preseason because of a quadriceps strain, returning for the final three games.

Now, he said, he's pain-free. But is his game ready for the regular season?

It's getting there, Rubio said. But it wasn't until the second half of Friday's preseason finale that he started to feel like himself.

Indeed, Rubio said he spent his first two preseason appearances working mainly on himself and not the team.

"I was out for a long time," Rubio said. "Those two games, on the road, I was trying to find myself before trying to help the team to get something going. It was selfish, but it was something I needed to do. I was out six, seven months. I had to find myself again."

He looked good at Target Center onFriday, hitting four of seven shots, going 1-for-2 on three-pointers, scoring 13 points with six assists and three steals. But it was in the second half when things really started clicking for him, Rubio said.

"You can run, you can do a lot of things off the court," he said. "When you jump out there, you think, 'I'm in good shape.' But it's not the same. You can't imitate game shape. And it's not just being fast and quick, it's being in the right time and the right spot. You need to remember where [you need to be] on the floor."

Interestingly, Rubio said one way he knows he's starting to get comfortable is when he starts getting rebounds. He only had two Friday, but both came in the second half, in which he also had five of his six assists. "I didn't have the feeling yet, to where the ball is going and anticipate that," he said. "Finally [Friday] I got a couple steals. I finally found myself."

But there is still a ways to go. "It's something that's going to come with time," Rubio said.

Andrew Wiggins and Shabazz Muhammad each took a moment Tuesday to talk about Flip Saunders, the team's coach and director of basketball operations who died Sunday at the age of 60.

"He brought me over here," said Wiggins, who was acquired by Saunders in a trade that sent Kevin Love to Cleveland. "I came over not really ready to be the player he wanted me to be. And he forced me to be that player, put me in position to succeed, win Rookie of the Year. He made me look good on the court. I owe it all to him."

Said Muhammad: "I know he wants us to go out and give it our all, play tough. And that's one thing I can't wait to do on Wednesday. Represent, not only for our team, but for Flip."

• Wolves rookie Karl-Anthony Towns and Lakers rookie D'Angelo Russell — the two top picks in the 2015 draft — are good friends. So Towns said he has been talking with Russell regularly. "We talked all day yesterday," Towns said. "He was wishing me condolences on Flip. We talked this morning. We can't wait to see each other. We can't wait to compete against each other, also.''