The good news Thursday was that Chase Budinger, in his first practice since being cleared for basketball activity, reported that his surgically-repaired left knee felt fine.
The rest of his body? Not so much.
"I wasn't thinking about it very much," Budinger said of his knee. "I was more just thinking how tired my legs got out there, how my shot became short and my legs and my quads and my feet were burning.''
No timetable has been set for Budinger's return to action. But, at this point, the biggest hurdle to overcome might not be the knee at all. It is the rest of his body, which has to get back to game shape.
"It's kind of a little bit of everything," he said. "We'll see tomorrow how my knee feels, how the rest of my body feels. But the biggest thing I felt today was the bottom of my feet. Halfway through out there, my feet were starting to burn. That's just something that you've got to get used to again."
Here are some other items from today's practice:
--A day later Wolves coach Rick Adelman was still shaking his head at Portland's ability to come back. Down 32 points in the second quarter, the Blazers cut it within five points late in the game, primarily on the three-point shooting of Damian Lillard and Nicolas Batum.
"With the way defenses are, if you move the ball, somebody's going to end up with a wide-open three," Adelman said. "And so (the game) is going that way. But they have five guys shooting 40 (percent) or above. So I'd let 'em shoot it if I was their coach. They're a very talented team. That's what scares you. They can come back quick once they start making their threes.''
