Frontcourt of the future gets good look in bad loss

Kevin Love and Al Jefferson started together in the Wolves' preseason loss to Denver.

By JERRY ZGODA, Star Tribune

Last update: October 11, 2008 - 12:57 AM

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DENVER 118, WOLVES 95 (EXHIBITION)

Up next: 7:30 p.m. Tuesday • at Chicago • KFAN-AM (1130)

DENVER — The Timberwolves peered into their future Friday in Denver, where star forward Al Jefferson and rookie Kevin Love started side by side in the frontcourt for the first time during a lopsided 118-95 exhibition loss to the Nuggets.

They became the frontcourt of the future when the Wolves dealt O.J. Mayo for Love and Mike Miller in an eight-player trade on draft night. Friday, Love looked every bit the rookie in the first half on a night when second-year forward Corey Brewer oozed offensive confidence after halftime.

Love couldn't keep Denver's Kenyon Martin from scoring eight points in the game's first seven minutes. He found his famed outlet passes might not always work in this league when J.R. Smith intercepted a long one. He was smacked in the mouth in the fourth quarter but stayed in the game.

The Wolves (2-1 in preseason) trailed by eight points late in the first quarter, by 24 late in the second and by 25 in the third to a Nuggets team playing without injured star Carmelo Anthony. Brewer, a 37 percent shooter from the field a season ago, helped get them within 13 in the final quarter with his three-point shooting (4-for-5, 18 points).

"Fatigue," Wolves coach Randy Wittman said of his team and Love, who hadn't had a day off since training camp began 11 days earlier. "He [Love] was dead. Both those guys [Jefferson and Love] ... they need to get in better shape."

Guard Rashad McCants hyperextended his elbow in the first quarter and played only four minutes. Wittman said he wanted to rest veteran Mike Miller, so Miller played less than 10 minutes. Forward Craig Smith sat out his second consecutive game because he still has inflammation in his surgically repaired knee.

Wittman also experimented by reuniting point guards Randy Foye and Sebastian Telfair in the starting backcourt against the Nuggets' smallish backcourt.

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