Center Nikola Pekovic and forward Andrei Kirilenko will both play tonight when the Wolves take on New Orleans at Target Center.
Kirilenko had missed nine straight games since straining his left calf Feb. 26 at Phoenix. Pekovic had missed eight games with an abdominal strain.
It appears both will start, though coach Rick Adelman was being cagey about it. "Could start 'em, could bring 'em off the bench, may start one," he joked. " I don't know. I'm getting a lot of input from the assistant coaches. My tendency is to start 'em. They're two of our best players. But there are matchups out there, things we're looking at. I want to see how they perform. I think the best way to do that is to start 'em. I would hate not to start 'em, and have 'em come into the game and pull something. Then it's on me. I'm not going to do that."
So now the Wolves, who played with just nine available players so far this March, are at 11. It appears neither will be limited in minutes by injury concerns. The most important thing is conditioning.
Meanwhile, Adelman had no update on Chase Budinger. I would think we'll know a lot more about him when the team practices next, which should be Wednesday.
That's about it for now. I'll get back to you after the game.
