Elite teams come calling on Wolves early

The NBA schedule makers have kept the Timberwolves at home for six of their first seven games in this lockout-shortened 66-game season, but they sure didn't do them any favors.

Those six home games are against Oklahoma City in Monday night's season opener, Miami, Dallas, San Antonio, Memphis and Cleveland, interrupted only by a quick trip to Milwaukee on Tuesday.

"It's a beast," Wolves All-Star forward Kevin Love said. "We have a very tough stretch. Right out of the gate, it's pretty tough for us. We need as much time as we can get on the floor together, just to get ourselves going. Playing those teams will be a little different because they've been on the floor so long together. They've been able to put together in two weeks of training camp what we haven't been able to put together.

"That's where that time on the floor really makes a difference."

Take away the Cavaliers and those first five teams visiting Target Center this season had a combined .676 winning percentage last season.

"We all know the NBA is hard," said newly signed guard J.J. Barea, a member of last season's NBA champion Mavericks. "We might as well get it going and start it off hard. It's going to be a good challenge for us the first week of the season and we'll go from there. I got no question about this: The coaches did a good job getting us ready for the first game. Now we'll see what happens."

FocusedHere's perhaps another small sign of Love's commitment this season: In addition to those 25 pounds he lost, he spent Christmas Eve and Christmas Day in Minneapolis, with his family back home in Oregon. Coach Rick Adelman and his sons went home to Portland for 36 hours but there wasn't an open seat left on the small private jet they flew.

He planned on spending Christmas Day watching the NBA's quintupleheader to prepare mentally for Monday's opener.

Rookie challengeRookie Malcolm Lee impressed during training camp with his ability to defend both guard positions. Adelman was asked if Lee is ready to guard a guy like powerful Thunder point guard Russell Westbrook yet.

"He certainly has the defense to do it," Adelman said. "It's just if we have to put him in there, we will. If he [Westbrook] is really hurting us, I don't have any problems putting him in. I just don't know what the rotation will be right now."

Holiday pairHere's an educated guess on Adelman's supposedly undetermined rotation: Look for Barea and Ricky Rubio to play together -- very likely off the bench -- Monday.

"I think every time, we get more close together," Barea said about practices and games. "I'm trying to talk to him, tell him what to expect the first games. It's not going to be easy, but I think he's going to learn from these couple first games. I think we bring a lot of energy to the game. We bring a lot of easy shots for ourselves and our teammates. We'll see what happens."

"Yeah, I think so," Love said. "He's young enough. We have a youthful group, and he's a guy who gets along with everybody and plays well out there on the floor. He's in his rookie year. He'll grow a lot this year, and we'll assess him from there.

"I think as a team and as an organization we're putting a lot of pressure on him. I just think he needs to go out there and play, learn from his mistakes and get better day in and day out."

Feliz NavidadRubio's mother, father and sister are visiting him for the holidays and brought a little bit of Spain with them for Christmas.

But they apparently didn't bring one tradition with them.