The Wolves’ 38-point margin of victory was the largest in an exhibition game in team history.
Center Calvin Booth, who has been sidelined since the start of training camp by back spasms, was scheduled to see a specialist Tuesday.
Center Jason Collins was in California to see his doctor as he continues his recovery from elbow surgery.
At one point the lead was 45 points, and the final margin was 117-79. Given the absence of competitive resistance, what the stats begin to reveal is what roles the players assumed for themselves. For example, Mike Miller led the team with 7 assists while shooting only 5 times in 26:11. By contrast, Kevin Love attempted a team-high 10 shots in 22:50, and yet didn’t get to line once while his teammates were going 31-43 from the charity stripe. Love did tie for the team-high with two offensive boards (same as Al Jefferson). Shaddy McCants obviously went to the hoop, ringing up 12 FTA in 19:24, which, combined with his 5-6 shooting (including 2-3 3ptFG), gave him a team-high 22. Jefferson had 18, most of them early to set the tone. He says low-block scoring is “like riding a bike,” a fabulous quote that is probably true for him.
“I was pleased with last night. Forget the score, I wanted to see us put things to use in a real game, defensively in particular. The effort and execution defensively was pretty good. We have to continue to shore up on defense, one of those things being our transition and the bigs running the floor in transition. We did a lot of good things last night.”