Rambis accentuates the positives amid the losses

PLAYA VISTA, CALIF. - July is far away.

Timberwolves basketball boss David Kahn made move after move last summer to position his team for next summer's free-agency bonanza. Until then, though, the players he has assembled for this season seemingly -- and metaphorically, of course -- walk the plank.

With injured Kevin Love probably three weeks away from making his season debut, the Timberwolves have lost 12 consecutive games. At 1-12 after Saturday's 106-78 loss at Portland, they are starting to tread toward record territory.

A loss tonight to the Clippers in Los Angeles would tie them for the franchise's worst start, 1-13 in the 1994-95 season.

The franchise's longest losing streak is 16 games, in 1991-92 and again in 1993-94.

Wolves coach Kurt Rambis was asked if losing's burden becomes too heavy as it approaches the record books.

"Not in my mind, no," he said. "We know the situation we're in. I don't think the players care. That's not something that enters their minds.

"That's something that definitely should not enter their minds," he said. "They have to just continue to be positive, continue to work on their individual skills, continue to learn how to play together.

"I just don't think you do all the things we did and expect a team to be successful. I don't believe that. The youth, the amount of changes we made, the imbalance in our roster, there's a purpose. We have a lot of cap space next year. That's the goal we have in mind."

It's certainly a roll of the dice on a future that right now looks anything but promising.

"We've got 70 games left, we don't want to think about records or what the losing record is," said forward Ryan Gomes. "We can only worry about the next game. If we lose that game, it's a one-game losing streak. That's how we've got to look at it."

Rambis praised the team after Saturday's loss for playing "really, really well for tremendous stretches."

The Wolves led by two points four minutes into the third quarter but were outscored 57-27 the rest of the way. Before the game, Rambis said he had hoped to see progress after two losses to Portland in the previous 12 days.

This time, they lost by 28.

Progress?

"Oh, absolutely, I thought they played great," Rambis said. "The Blazers are a very talented team. They have players who can bail them out. They get in tough situations and they put the ball in Brandon Roy's hands and he gets them over the hump.

"Because of their size and their shooting ability, they cause a lot of problems for us defensively," he said. "They cause a lot of problems for a lot of teams defensively.

"We're not secure as a team. We're not together as a team. We don't have enough experience as a team.

"Whenever we get in those tight situations, what do we do to bail us out? What do we do to stop those runs from happening, or get on runs ourselves? We're just not there."

Somebody asked Jefferson after Saturday's game whether he saw some of the same progress Rambis had.

He stared blankly, then said, "We lost by 30 points. ... We played good for the most part. We just couldn't score no more in the third quarter."

He said he had no idea how many consecutive games his team had lost.

"Don't know," Jefferson said. "Don't care."

• The Wolves' 1-12 record got their home game Friday against Phoenix bumped off the ESPN schedule. It was scheduled for a late start as part of a TV doubleheader, but ESPN now will show rookie sensation Brandon Jennings and Milwaukee at Oklahoma City. The Wolves-Suns game will stay an 8:30 p.m. start because to change now would problematic. Unless there's a late change, the game also won't be televised locally.