Wolves youngsters determined to play all 82 games

SALT LAKE CITY – Five days after San Antonio coach Gregg Popovich unsurprisingly rested five stars in a prime-time, television-showcase game at Oklahoma City, Los Angeles Clippers coach Doc Rivers did something similar, sitting veteran starters Chris Paul, DeAndre Jordan and J.J. Redick out of Wednesday's game against the Thunder.

Timberwolves interim head coach Sam Mitchell has admitted in recent days that he has thought about doing the same with young players such as Karl-Anthony Towns, Zach LaVine and Andrew Wiggins but won't, for a simple reason:

His team isn't headed to the playoffs.

"I said sometimes I think about it," Mitchell said. "When you look at what some other teams do, they give their guys rest. Sometimes I've wondered, 'Should I do that?' We've got too much developing to do … Maybe older playoff teams are getting their guys ready for the playoffs. This is our playoff stretch right now."

Mitchell considered whether Towns and LaVine might need some rest after both gestured to him they needed a break during a game against Utah on Saturday.

"I do need to be careful," he said. "You could see it. Zach has never, ever — even I know he's tired. I ask, 'Do you need a blow?' No. Karl? No. They have never asked me to come out of a game. But it's kind of a litmus test for me when those two guys give me the look."

Last season, Wiggins was the only Timberwolf who played in all 82 games and he did it on the way to winning Rookie of the Year honors. Towns is aimed at doing the same. LaVine, Gorgui Dieng and Shabazz Muhammad also have played all 75 games thus far. Wiggins has played 74 of 75.

"I do feel if I was to go to those guys and talk about doing that, I think they would give me a flat-out no," Mitchell said. "I think they want to play. I think it's important to them. I know last year it was important to Andrew to play 82 games. He and I sat down and talked about it. I said, 'You can start counting guys on one hand or two hands who played all 82 games.' "

Until this season, Muhammad had never approached playing every game in his first two NBA seasons. Sidelined by injuries ranging from a sprained ankle, knee ligament and strained oblique muscles to a ruptured finger ligament and sometimes not used by his coach's choice, he played 37 games his rookie season and 38 games last season.

"One thing I haven't done my three-year career is play all 82 games," Muhammad said. "I think that's a really good achievement for me. It tells you I can stay healthy for a whole season."

Mitchell played every game four times during his 13-season NBA playing career, played 80 or 81 games four other times and played fewer than 74 games only twice in his career.

He calls it "rare," having four players on the same team play every game.

"Guys don't do that now," Mitchell said. "When I came into the league, it was something to play in 82 games. That was our goal. Guys wanted a streak of 500, 600 games without missing a game. Now they couldn't care less. When I was in high school, you wanted that [perfect attendance] certificate at the end of the year. If nothing else, at least you showed up every day. That's what my mom used to tell me: 'At least you went every day.' If you go every day, you're going to learn something. If you play every game, you're going to learn something."

Staff writers Dennis Brackin and Kent Youngblood contributed to this report.