The Wolves will be without reserve forward Shabazz Muhammad for tonight's game in Washington.

He has been made inactive because he is ill, according the team's daily injury report.

We'll see if that means Brandon Rush plays for the first time in nearly a month.

The Wizards have won eight consecutive home games and have won nine of their last 14 games despite just coming off consecutive losses at Houston and Dallas.

Tonight's coaching matchup -- the Wolves' Tom Thibodoeau and Scott Brooks -- goes way to the early Wolves days, when Brooks was trying to find his way in the league as a journeyman point guard and Thibodeau was a young assistant to Bill Musselman.

Each talked before the game about their long friendship and how they talked and took notes in conversations with each other after both were paid by their previous teams not to coach last season.

Thibodeau coached Brooks in two places, with the Wolves and later in New York.

"He was always on me, I was like his guy that he was always complaining I wasn't in the right positions defensively," Brooks said. "Thibs is a great coach. He cares about winning. He's focused every day."