Wolves' LaVine learns his lessons

Raising your kids sometimes requires tough love and unpleasant truths. Timberwolves coach Flip Saunders imparted some of both to rookie Zach LaVine after Tuesday's preseason-opening loss at Indiana.

Learning both guard positions on a night his team played without injured starting shooting guard Kevin Martin, LaVine played more than 25 minutes off the bench against the Pacers. Only seconds after he stepped onto the floor, he launched a long shot that veered wide, and before his night was all over, LaVine took nine shots from the field, missed seven and committed five turnovers, including a pass or two that ended up in the second row.

Welcome to the NBA, young man …

Saunders called Tuesday's 103-90 loss a "rough night" for the 19-year-old, whom he drafted as the team's president of basketball operations with the 13th pick in last June's draft. Saunders is now also the new head coach, sure to give meaningful minutes to his top draft pick during preseason play.

The coach approached LaVine in the locker room shortly after the game and gave him the bad and good news.

"As I told him, 'You got your butt kicked,' " Saunders said. "That's part of it. The best thing is you come back two days later and see what you have. It's a tough position to play, when you're out there basically by yourself. We didn't have another '2' [shooting] guard [with Martin out injured]. You have to go through those growing pains. It can be a struggle. You learn from it, watch a lot of film with him and hopefully have an opportunity to get back after it Friday."

LaVine echoed the words of his coach.

"I got the first little jitters out," said LaVine, who also scored five points, had five rebounds and four assists. "You watch some film, see what you did right and what you did wrong and go back out there and compete. It's a learning experience. You go out there and do the best you can and try to get better next time."

That next time is Friday against Philadelphia at Target Center.

LaVine said he noticed the NBA preseason's quickened pace, which is faster than last week's training camp but not nearly what he'll face when the regular season begins Oct. 29 at Memphis.

"It was really fast at first; in the second half, I feel it slowed down a bit," said LaVine, whose highlight Tuesday was an alley-oop dunk he converted from Glenn Robinson III's lofted pass. "It was my first game, there was a crowd out there, music playing, the lights are on, playing against a different team. You're automatically going to be a little more hyped. I was trying to play two positions, try to feel my way around when to shoot and when not to shoot. You go out there and do the best you can and try to do better next time."