For Wolves' Pekovic, finding his rhythm is a process

ST. LOUIS – Step by step and game by game, Timberwolves center Nikola Pekovic knows next week's NBA season opener in Memphis is fast approaching.

His body tells him so as the team's preseason schedule finally ends Friday night in St. Louis against the Chicago Bulls.

Each passing game's stat sheet does as well.

His conditioning, footwork and statistical efficiency have improved nightly while Wolves coach Flip Saunders keeps his promise that Pekovic's playing time will be carefully measured all season.

Saunders talks of that improvement in almost poetic terms when speaking of the "rhythm" his big center is rediscovering — as if Pekovic is the world's most forbidding dancer — after the team has handled him and his troublesome ankle bursa sac so carefully.

"I don't dance," Pekovic said.

Of course, there's only one way to go when you sit out preseason's opening game as a precaution and then make five of 15 shots — all of them from right around the basket, of course — in the next two games after that.

But all of that is changing here now that the clock ticks loudly toward Wednesday night.

In Wednesday's 110-91 victory at Milwaukee, Pekovic delivered a 15-point, 13-rebound double-double game in 19 minutes.

Saunders suggests this is Pekovic's time, this week ramping up to season's start.

"He's usually like this," Saunders said "He gets his rhythm about a week before the season starts."

Pekovic smiles at the suggestion.

"You mean, when it's time to wake up?" he asked. "That's how I work. That's how my body is. I work in the summer, but still it's not the same if you don't have games. I know my body is a little slow to start. I need time to catch up, but after that it's fine. Every game now, it gets better and better."

Pekovic worked less last summer than usual because of that troublesome ankle that limited him to 54 games a season ago. He spent part of his summer seeing doctors and other medical specialists and went to Nike's Oregon headquarters to get fitted for a better shoe. He didn't get back on the court until August, and Saunders has proceeded with caution in October when determining his practice and game time.

"That's the point of preseason, for somebody they need more, for somebody less," said Pekovic, 28 years old and entering his fifth NBA season. "It's important for me especially because I couldn't play games for so long. Each game, I hope this progress will continue. I hope just like this."

In his past three games, Pekovic has shot nearly 52 percent from the field, much closer to the career 53.5 percent average achieved by a bruising low-post player who shoots nearly everything from within 6 feet of the basket.

"My conditioning is getting there, and my shot, it just comes back," he said. "I'm not worrying about it. They're all my shots. I can kind of feel it coming. I feel more free. I probably just need a few more games to feel comfortable."

And he'll need many, many more games before he'll know if he can stay healthy for an entire season. He has never missed fewer than 19 games in any of his first four NBA seasons. Saunders vows to play Pekovic in shorter stretches this season and limit his minutes, probably to somewhere in the 20s every night as Pekovic enters the second season of a five-year contract that guarantees him $60 million.

"I feel good, I feel great," Pekovic said. "But I know: It is early."