Wolves preseason record: 6-2
After flopping in his first game in front of a hometown crowd, Timberwolves rookie Kevin Love bounced back a night later.
Love had 14 points and 10 rebounds, and Al Jefferson added 19 points to lead Minnesota to a 95-76 exhibition victory over the Milwaukee Bucks on Thursday night.
Love missed nine of 10 shots and scored just four points in Minnesota’s loss to Chicago on Wednesday night, the Wolves’ preseason home opener.
Love scored 10 of his 14 of his points in the final quarter as the Wolves wrapped up the exhibition season the same way they started it, with a blowout victory over the Milwaukee Bucks…
No one was happier afterward than Love, who hit 4 of 6 field-goal attempts and grabbed a team-high 10 rebounds in nearly 22 minutes while burying the memory of the previous night’s 85-75 loss to Chicago.
“It felt so much better,” Love said. “Most of the guys told me the next night or the night after, there’s always going to be another game. I had never played that bad before that I can remember. I just had to bounce back.”
Love said he showed up early for shootaround Thursday morning and stayed late, and credited his teammates for helping him keep his head up.
But unlike one night before when they couldn’t climb out of a 22-point hole against Chicago, the Wolves erased a 13-point deficit against the Bucks. In previous games, bench players were responsible for a bailout. This time, the starters took care of business before reserves put it out of reach.
The Bucks opened up their double-digit lead late in the second quarter, but after outscoring Milwaukee 55-30 in the second half, the Timberwolves had the lead for good from the 6:05 mark of the third quarter.
No surprise in who led the attack. Big man Al Jefferson was again a force Thursday, scoring a game-high 19 points on 7-for-8 shooting and a perfect 5-for-5 from the free throw line.
The Wolves started Ryan Gomes at power forward Thursday, with Corey Brewer at small forward, Al Jefferson at center and Randy Foye and Mike Miller at the guards.