Well, at least Kevin Love kept his sense of humor -- or tried to -- tonight with his first 0-fer game since December of his rookie year in 2008.

Ten days after he put up 23 points and 24 rebounds in L.A. against these same Lakers, Love went 0 for 7 and ended up scoreless with seven rebounds in 34 minutes on a night when Lamar Odom's length and Ron Artest's strength kept him from getting any real position -- scoring, rebounding or otherwise -- all game.

Disgusted by his lack of production, Love apologized to the fans, his teammates, his coaches and "everybody" -- pretty all encompassing, wasn't he? -- for a performance in which he noted his grandmother scored as many points Friday as he did.

He called it the worst night of his career, going all the way back to the "first grade."

Then he looked at me on a night when I surprised by wearing a suit and tie and said, "Even when he did his hair and the jacket, I went played the polar opposite" of how I looked.

Then he said something about being sarcastic.

"I'm trying to make myself smile after a night like that," he said.

Love's shooting woes were just symptomatic of a team that couldn't make a shot tonight.

Wes Johnson went 2 for 9, Sebastian Telfair 3 for 10, even Mike Beasley went just 9 for 22 but still reached 25 points for the sixth consecutive game.

The only one by comparison on fire was....Darko.

Darko?

That's right.

While the Lakers focused so on keeping Love off the glass and scoreboard, Milicic emerged with a career night.

He always seems to play Pau Gasol well.

"I like playing those big-time centers like him, Tim Duncan, Shaq," said Milicic, who made 10 of 18 shots..

But this?

His 23-point, 16-rebound, 6-block, 5-assist night set his career highs for points and block and tied them for rebounds and assists.

He also joined Kevin Garnett to become the only player in Wolves history to record a 20/15/5/5 game.

Garnett did it six times here in Minnesota.

Milicic did so even after hitting knees with Artest and going down in pain on the floor just 12 seconds into the game.

He now has two double-doubles in his last three games, a trend Kurt Rambis attributes partly to Milicic being in better shape than when he reporterd to training camp in late September.

"I had a good game, but you lose the game, it doesn't count," he said. "My biggest problem in my career is consistency. I have great games and then I come out flat. So I'm going to try to work on my consistency. Try keep playing hard, not worry about scoring and stuff. Just come out and play. Like today, I didn't think about it. I just came out and played."

That's all from Target Center tonight.

The Wolves practice Saturday and Sunday, then fly to Oklahoma City for Monday's game against the Thunder.

Kent Youngblood's got practice tomorrow.

Check in with him on the blog then.