TORONTO – On Thursday, Timberwolves coach Rick Adelman contemplated changes to his rotation following Wednesday's lackadaisical home loss to Sacramento.
In Friday's 94-89 loss to the Raptors, he dabbled with two, subbing forward Luc Mbah a Moute into the game in both halves to replace Corey Brewer after he got into foul trouble trying to defend Raptors star guard DeMar DeRozan and using A.J. Price for four second-half minutes after being inactive Wednesday.
Adelman considered using Mbah a Moute against Kings star Rudy Gay two nights earlier, but was reluctant to disrupt a rotation and a bench with which he felt satisfied. On Friday, Mbah a Moute played 18 minutes — his most since Dec. 27 against Washington —spelling Brewer, who reached four fouls trying to stop DeRozan.
"I felt they both did fine," Adelman said. "Luc did a good job defensively. DeRozan's a real handful. When Corey got in foul trouble, I felt Luc was our best option at that point."
Price played his fleeting minutes in a two-point guard look with J.J. Barea, who for the second consecutive game played the entire fourth quarter while starter Ricky Rubio watched from the bench.
Adelman said he continues to contemplate lineup tinkering daily.
"We're talking about it all the time: What can we do to make things better?" Adelman said. "But one of the biggest problems we've had is for six weeks we've had a decent game and then we've had a bad game.
''It's not like it's a long losing streak where you just have to do something and it changes from game to game. You hope that [a long losing streak] doesn't happen."