Wolves record: 1-14

It’s 14 games now, nearly a solid month of losing since opening night, and after Wednesday’s 124-111 Target Center drubbing by the first-place Nuggets, officially the worst start ever to a Timberwolves season. But while coach Kurt Rambis concedes that a victory, any victory, would evaporate several tons of anxiety from his team’s psyche, he’s also careful not to add to the ugly vibe by harping on the Wolves’ lengthening list of losses.

“There’s no sense in [talking about it]. If that pressure is put on the guys, it just adds to it,” Rambis said. “It’s going to be divisive. Destructive.”

In fact, Rambis fears he saw a few symptoms of that destructiveness in the over-from-the-start loss to Denver. The Nuggets, who have won 10 consecutive meetings against Minnesota, needed less than six minutes to establish a double-digit lead, and the Wolves coach pointed at his own roster as the reason why.

– Don’t be fooled by the final score, the fourth quarter had little relation to the first three. Carmelo Anthony, Kenyon Martin, Chauncey Billups and Nene all sat out the entire period, which is why Minnesota closed a 23-point gap after three periods to just eight points, 119-111, with 1:10 to play. The crowd was getting into the spirit of the comeback, but they were silenced in a hurry by Aaron Affalo’s three-pointer.
Corey Brewer led the Wolves with 22 points. Rookie point guard Jonny Flynn added 20 points. The Nuggets’ inside strength of Kenyon Martin, Nene and reserve forward Chris Andersen made it tough for Wolves forward Al Jefferson to operate. Jefferson had 14 points and 12 rebounds but was 6 of 15 shooting from the floor. Ten of Jefferson’s points came in the fourth quarter against the Nuggets’ reserves.

“They’re a playoff team, but we could have played a lot better,” Jefferson said. “We started feeling sorry for ourselves instead of just keep playing.”