Wolves preseason record: 2-1
Al Jefferson grabbed 11 rebounds and scored 10 points for Minnesota (2-1), while Corey Brewer had 13 of his 18 points in the fourth quarter.
Brewer said he spent the majority of the summer working on getting his shooting touch back. This was a step in the right direction.
“I should get a lot of open shots this year and I have got to knock them down,” he said.
Rookie Kevin Love turned in a nine-point, 11-rebound game, while reserve Blake Ahearn finished with 17 points and Randy Foye chipped in 16.
Love couldn’t keep Denver’s Kenyon Martin from scoring eight points in the game’s first seven minutes. He found his famed outlet passes might not always work in this league when J.R. Smith intercepted a long one. He was smacked in the mouth in the fourth quarter but stayed in the game…
“Fatigue,” Wolves coach Randy Wittman said of his team and Love, who hadn’t had a day off since training camp began 11 days earlier. “He [Love] was dead. Both those guys [Jefferson and Love] … they need to get in better shape.”
When was the last time you saw this?: Corey Brewer clapping his hands and demanding the ball behind the three-point line. Never as a Wolf, that’s for sure. With his team down big in the second half, Brewer started firing and his confidence practically oozed. He made four of five three-point attempts and scored 18. In the three preseason games, he has made five threes, or two fewer than he made all last season. Guess what was the first word he used after the game: You got it, confidence.
Rashad McCants played just four minutes after hyperextending his elbow. No immediate word on how serious, or not, the injury is.
Craig Smith didn’t play for the second consecutive game because there’s still some swelling in that surgically repaired knee and it was deemed best to give him a couple days to recover.