From John Hollinger/ESPN: In-Season All-Improved Team

Corey Brewer, Minnesota
Brewer might be the most improved shooter in the league. Or the most improved shooter ever, for that matter. Here’s a stat that will floor you: As of Jan. 7, he’d made 23 3-pointers his entire career. Since then, he’s made a triple in 27 consecutive games — breaking Minnesota’s franchise record. As you might imagine, the improved stroke helps his other numbers, too: Brewer averaged 15.6 points on 47 percent shooting in February.

Timberwolves coach Kurt Rambis told me that Brewer’s balance was the key: Brewer had been leaning back or to the side too often as he went up for his shot, and the Wolves had worked with him on going forward toward the rim as he launches. Apparently it’s worked; he’s made 43.1 percent of his 3s during the current streak, and a shot opponents once happily conceded to him now shows up on their scouting reports.
Dallas Mavericks guard Jason Terry is scheduled to have surgery Friday to repair facial injuries suffered after Minnesota guard Corey Brewer’s elbow and forearm struck the left side of Terry’s face during the third quarter of Wednesday’s game.

Terry said the blow broke his orbital bone, the area that encases the socket of the eye. A timetable will be released after the surgery is performed.

Brewer was unavailable for comment after Thursday’s practice in Minneapolis, but Timberwolves coach Kurt Rambis said he was sorry to hear about Terry’s injury.

“It was completely inadvertent. There wasn’t anything malicious to what Corey did. That’s what the referees saw, too,” Rambis said. “That’s unfortunate for Jason. That’s unfortunate for the Mavericks, as well.”

4. Kevin Love, Wolves: He has embraced his role of coming off the bench and is a threat to notch a double-double on a nightly basis. (Last week: NR)
NBA players’ involvement with St. Jude has progressed from a relationship with the Las Vegas Summer League, to the “Rookie Relief” program Love joined in 2008, to this week’s charitable triumph — Hoops for St. Jude Week. From March 1-7, Love, five other players and Nuggets coach George Karl raise awareness about the Memphis-based hospital’s efforts to help young cancer patients and their families.

Love, the first NBA player to sign on with St. Jude, has been joined by Pau Gasol, Shane Battier, Danny Granger, Rudy Gay, Steve Blake and Karl — the Denver coach touched profoundly and publicly by cancer. Each player has pledged to donate money for every basket he makes this season with a minimum pledge of $20,000 apiece. Coaches throughout the league are wearing Hoops for St. Jude lapel pins this week, and autographed jerseys from superstars like Kobe Bryant, LeBron James, Dwyane Wade, Chris Paul, Dwight Howard and others are being auctioned on eBay to raise more money for the cause. Bids are being taken through Sunday.

Darko Milicic earned his first start in a Wolves uniform, finishing with six points and two rebounds. Rambis evaluated his performance, “It’s unfortunate that he got into foul trouble. Everything that he’s doing — we’re seeing glimpses of tremendous potential, for him and for us… He has such tremendous vision and massive capabilities, and we really haven’t seen an exorbitant amount of what he can do scoring-wise. But it’s there. It’s just starting to poke out, and that’s why we’re doing things in practice to encourage him to be not only passing the basketball, but to be looking for goal opportunities as well.”

From Jerry Zgoda/Star Tribune:
Wayne Ellington and Nathan Jawai didn’t practice again today with that sprained ankle each sustained in practice on Monday. Best case scenario for Ellington would seem to be Monday’s rematch with Dallas, but that may be optimistic.

From RandBall: TFD: The Timberwolves and a new ticket philosophy
*The short answer to that question appears to be that if you aren’t selling a lot of your available seats, selling a bunch of your seats for less isn’t a bad move. “It’s a price value play. It’s almost like a commodity play,” Wright said. “You’ve got the available inventory. Number one, what do you want to create for your players? You want to create home court advantage. The way to do that is to put a lot of people inside Target Center. Right now we don’t have that. The model, to a degree, is broken. … I would say it’s bold. We’ve turned some heads. We talk inside our operation all the time. The business operation is matching the bold moves of the basketball operation.”
Just finished getting a much needed cut, @J_Flynn don’t know nothing about spinning, let me show y’all..lol http://twitpic.com/16mj0n
From Sven Coburn/RealGM: A Darko Experiment Gone Right
From Monica Wright/City Pages: Mike Rylander recovers from Dorito death
5. You are also the in-arena announcer for the Timberwolves. Do you have a favorite Target Center snack?
I usually get the turkey sandwich (that whole “trying to eat healthy” thing), but when I drop my inhibitions, I believe they have an item called the “Super Nacho” that’s about as deliciously naughty as you can get.
Big Al’s been in the news for the wrong reasons and is dealing with a suspension handed down for fourth degree driving while impaired after his arrest by the Minnesota State Patrol. Just so you know, I’m not condoning what happened the other night. No way. I’ve lost friends in alcohol related accidents and I know, first hand, how deadly all that can be. I agree with David Kahn, SO glad there was no accident and no one was hurt.

However, in this season of struggle for this very young team, it’s tragic this has happened and turned so much of the attention away from the team’s and Al’s work.

I know this has hit Big Al hard. He’s one of the hardest workers in practice, he’s truly happy to play in Minnesota and he enjoys being a T’Wolve standout. Jefferson also knows he makes a boat load of money and knows that this kind of action carries consequences.

Wolves center Ryan Hollins and rookie guard Jonny Flynn credited a full house at American Airlines Center and some actual crowd noise.

“It’s a great environment,” Hollins said. “It takes you back to your college days.”

For Flynn, that’s a whole year removed. “It’s a great arena, great fans, great energy,” Flynn said. “They bring out the best in us, I guess.”

The Wolves lost 112-109 to the Mavs on Wednesday, five days after they got clobbered in front of a loud, sellout crowd in Oklahoma City. “Guys like to perform, absolutely,” Rambis said. “But I’d have them look at the Oklahoma City game: Same college environment, packed house. We didn’t fare too well there. Maybe you should have brought that up to them.”