A schedule win still beats the alternative

For the Wolves, Sunday's 112-91 manhandling of the Knicks was one of those games that make it impossible to gauge your own team. It was a classic NBA schedule victory -- a rested home team against a lousy road team that played the night before (in this case, at Washington). And the Knicks certainly lived up to their end, appearing alternately overmatched and disinterested.

So the results of the game are entirely artificial. As coach Kurt Rambis noted, "they were tired, and our guys made them work. And when you're tired, you start missing shots." Check. The Knicks made 39.8 percent of their shots, led by Nate Robinson's 1-for-10, Jordan Hill's 1-for-5, and Danilo Gallinari's 4-for-14.

But when you're 11-38 and just won two straight games for the second time all year, it's hard to resist the temptation to draw conclusions -- extremely upbeat, hopeful conclusions -- about how well you're playing. So it was in the Wolves' locker room, where the new-and-improved Ryan Hollins and future sixth-man-of-the-year candidate Kevin Love seemed to buoy the entire team's emotions.

"It's nice we can go to the bench and have a player like Kevin," said Al Jefferson. "Ryan is playing his role perfectly," judged Love of the man who claimed his starting spot.

Yes, there's plenty of room for skepticism, given the level of the opposition. The Clippers, Wednesday's victim, were on Day 8 of a road trip, and the Knicks were playing on tired legs. The Wolves don't care, though. They've lost often enough to know better than to scoff at success. And there are certainly worse strengths to build around than a trio of quality interior players, if that's what this turns into.

"We just want to think of the rest of the season as a starting point," Rambis said. "Forget everything that's happened in the past."

Minnesota has lost nine straight road games, the last four by 99 points, and hasn't beaten a team with a winning record since Utah on Dec. 14. So there are still plenty of hurdles for this new lineup to clear.

-- Jonny Flynn's start mirrored his team's, but he rebounded from it very well. Literally rebounded, actually -- Flynn finished with a career-high eight boards. He was 0-for-6 from the field at halftime and hadn't scored, but he made three of four shots after halftime and finished with six points. Even better: he had eight assists, so he was making large contributions even when his shot wasn't falling. (He seemed to be having fun besides, given that he wasn't playing bigger guards for a change; Chris Duhon is basically the same 6-feet tall as Flynn, and Nate Robinson is generously listed at 5-9. No wonder he outrebounded that pair, 8-0.)

-- Flynn wasn't the only one grabbing rebounds away from the Knicks. Minnesota outrebounded New York, 65-39, with six players pulling down a half-dozen or more boards. One of the was Ramon Sessions, so Wolves point guards actually outrebounded New York's, 14-0. "I don't think anything broke down, they just overmuscled us," said New York coach Mike D'Antoni.

-- The Wolves have won 13 of their last 18 games against the Knicks, and five of six at Target Center.

-- Minnesota now has four days off before their next game, sort of an early All-Star Break. It sounded like many players obviously expected to be given Monday off, so there was some grumbling about "going back to training camp" when a 1 p.m. practice was scheduled.

-- David Lee was whistled for an odd technical foul in the fourth quarter, when he apparently complained that Al Jefferson's basket underneath should have been an offensive foul. He didn't seem to be particularly vociferous about it, but he clearly irritated referee Scott Wall, who told him basically to shut up. When Lee renewed the objection during a timeout, Wall whistled one of the more emphatic technicals I've seen in awhile -- he was really fuming, far more than Lee had been -- and stalked down to the opposite end of the floor.

-- Kevin Love, told that Rambis had said that they conferred about moving him to the bench: "Kurt didn't talk to me. About what? ... We should've been talking to him about that jacket he was wearing out there tonight."