Hindsight is perfect, of course. But, feeling the way he does now, Kevin Love admits that he probably should have had surgery in the first place.
Love, his right hand still a bit swollen, offered an update on his condition in the Wolves locker room before Sunday's matinee with Golden State. Love broke the third metacarpal in his right hand Jan. 3 at Denver. He had surgery Jan. 15 in New York City. It was his second such injury; he broke two bones in the same hand in the preseason.
The first time, Love opted not to have surgery. In hindsight, he should have.
"Yes," he said. "But the doctor said I didn't necessarily need it. This time it was a clean break."
Love said his hand feels much better than it did the first time at the same point in recovery. "It just feels different, better," he said. "It feels like my hand again."
As for his return? Love will visit with his surgeon either late in the first week of March or early in the second week. But he said he's expecting to play 15 to 20 games, which would target his return to mid-March.
"It's progressively getting stronger," Love said. "With weights, and with everything I can do to improve range of motion, working to get the swelling down and getting the scar tissue out of there."
The first time, after his Nov. 21 return, Love struggled with his shot and complained that his hand just didn't feel right. He already can sense it will be different this time. He is making steady progress, with good results, though there are good days and bad. "Sometimes it feels great, sometimes not so great," Love said. "But there are a lot more better days than worse days."
