J.J. Barea shrugged, smiled. "We're used to this," he said.
A few stalls over in the Timberwolves locker room Michael Beasley agreed. "Kind of sums up our season," he said.
The Wolves' litany of injuries continues. As the team was preparing for Thursday night's game against the Los Angeles Clippers at Target Center -- a 95-82 loss -- Kevin Love was getting ready to fly home after spending the night in a Denver- area hospital.
Love sustained a mild concussion and a strained neck in the first quarter of Wednesday's game against the Nuggets when he got in the way of an inadvertent JaVale McGee elbow. Beasley was right behind Love when it happened. He didn't think it was that bad. That is, until Love hit the floor. "He said he blacked out," Beasley said. "His eyes were shaking. That's when I knew it was serious. He opened his eyes and they were shaking a million miles per hour."
It is the latest in a long line of injuries the Wolves have sustained this season. Ricky Rubio was lost for the season with a knee injury March 9 with the Wolves fighting for playoff position. Two months later, after a list of injuries longer than one of Rubio's crutches, the season has come off the tracks.
The Wolves have six remaining games. So the question: Will Love return?
"I have no idea," Wolves coach Rick Adelman said. "We haven't seen him since he left the court last night. I think he has to get back here and have our doctors look at him. ... [But] if he's out five days, he'll miss 3-4 games. This season is pretty well gone by then anyway."
Love will have to clear some hurdles before he returns, according to NBA policy. Every player takes a preseason baseline neurological test. Once a player is diagnosed with a concussion, he can't come back until he returns to that baseline and then completes a series of exertion tests that get progressively more difficult without a return of symptoms.