Back home and back at practice Tuesday after 18 days away, Timberwolves veterans Jimmy Butler, Jamal Crawford and a few other teammates played 1-on-1 for nearly an hour afterward.
What, no jet lag?
"Not when it comes to competing," Butler said. "Everybody out there wants to beat me, but it's not happening."
The Wolves rested Monday after they arrived back home around 4 a.m. on a long flight from Shanghai. On Tuesday, they watched film from Sunday's preseason loss to Golden State and practiced lightly for nearly two hours before Butler, Crawford and others played against each other.
"That's kind of getting the jet lag out of your body," Butler said. "It was all about moving around, sweating a little bit, waking your body up. … My body, it's good. I can't tell you about everybody else's, but I'm up at 5:30 [a.m.] lifting weights. Anytime you want to box with me, I'll put you on your back, just letting you know."
The Wolves trained near San Diego for nine days and played a preseason game in Anaheim, Calif., before flying to Shenzhen for the first of two exhibition games against the Warriors. They traveled together all that time, ate dinners, did some sightseeing and participated in official NBA events while they were in China.
Those two games in China — a 111-97 victory over the defending NBA champions in Shenzhen and a 142-110 loss in Shanghai — told the Wolves their offense is, unsurprisingly, far ahead of their defense.
"The scoring, I don't see that as being a problem," Wolves coach Tom Thibodeau said. "We've got a lot of guys who can score. Our unselfishness was very good, but we probably had a higher amount of turnovers than I'd like at this time of year. It's not acceptable, but we have to adjust, particularly to the way the game is being called."
