Wolves have no interest in becoming 76ers' streak buster

The Timberwolves boarded a plane Tuesday morning and flew home from Los Angeles following Monday's 127-101 loss to the Clippers that veteran Mo Williams described as "beat so bad" and led him to discuss matters such as pride.

Just a day later, they'll face maybe their biggest test yet in a young, careening season already filled with them: Wednesday at Target Center they meet a winless Philadelphia team that will tie an NBA record for most consecutive losses to start a season if they lose their 18th consecutive.

The 76ers' 109-103 home loss to San Antonio on Monday matched the 1998-99 Clippers and 1988-89 Miami Heat teams that lost the first 17 games to start a season. The only team left on the list is the 2009-10 New Jersey Nets team that didn't win a game until Dec. 4 that season.

Somebody always loses to a winless team. In 2010, it was Charlotte that ended the Nets' unwanted streak.

Let it be Oklahoma City on Friday or Detroit next week. The Wolves just don't want it to be them.

"It's a game you've just got to go out and play," said Wolves veteran forward Thaddeus Young, who played his first seven NBA seasons in Philadelphia. "At any given moment any team can beat you in the NBA, we all know that. Hopefully, we can go out and get this victory.

''I mean, if they beat us and get their first win, it's definitely going to make us look bad as a team."

Wolves coach Flip Saunders said after Monday's loss in Los Angeles that he's more concerned about his own injury-depleted team and a bench that made rushed decisions and took bad shots in losses to the Clippers, Portland and Milwaukee in the last week.

"Philadelphia's going to win a game, whether it's us or somebody else," Saunders said after Monday's game. "We can't worry about Philadelphia. We just have to worry about ourselves. If we play like we did tonight, we won't beat anyone, it doesn't matter."

Under General Manager Sam Hinkie, the 76ers have ripped their roster down to the studs, trading away such veterans as Young and Evan Turner and remaking their team with endless patience as well as the eternal promise of gathered future draft picks and salary-cap space as well as young players Michael Carter-Williams, Nerlens Noel and Joel Embiid.

They waited an entire season for Noel to heal and now appear prepared to do the same with Embiid. Noel was the sixth pick in the 2013 draft, Embiid the third in 2014.

Philadelphia coach Brett Brown, a former San Antonio Spurs assistant, said after Saturday's 110-103 loss to Dallas — No. 16 in the winless streak — that he doesn't want his players worrying about breaking any record and said he respects them "because their spirit has not been broken."

If it had been, the 76ers probably wouldn't have fought back from 24 points behind and pulled within five points late in Monday's loss to a Spurs team playing without Tim Duncan and Tony Parker.

"I've seen lots of teams, at every level, just give in and give up," Spurs coach Gregg Popovich said after Monday's game. "These guys came at us with everything."

The 76ers did so with Noel and leading scorer Tony Wroten out injured. The Wolves themselves once again will be without starters Ricky Rubio, Kevin Martin and Nikola Pekovic.

"We just have to get through this period," Brown said after Monday's game. "It is more difficult going through it now than we all had guessed, but it's important we don't blink."

Williams has been on both sides of streaks. He played for Cleveland when the Cavs set an NBA record for consecutive defeats by losing 26 the season after LeBron James left for Miami.

"You don't forget something like that; we beat the Clippers actually," said Williams, who coincidentally was traded to the Clippers 13 days later. "I'm fully aware of how big this game is on Wednesday."

He was told the 76ers need a victory, badly.

"Well, we need to win, too," Williams said. "It should be a good game."