No. 9: Wolves lose 114-100 at Sacramento

The Wolves' best moment on a night when they lost their ninth straight and their 15th in the last 16 games?

Damien Wilkins' 48-footer from near half court that just beat the first-quarter buzzer and kept them within four points after the first 12 minutes.

From there?

The Wolves, playing without Kevin Love and Darko Milicic, got outrebounded, outrun and obviously outscored by a Kings team that's well ahead of th em on the rebuilding road with a collection of talented that's bigger, longer and much more athletic.

Start with Tyreke Evans, who came within a rebound of his second career triple double in the last three games.

Evans (29 points, 11 assists, 9 rebounds) would have gotten it, too, if teammate Omri Casspi hadn't snatched one from him not long before he sat down for the night midway through the fourth quarter with the game already long out of doubt.

Evans had 24 of his 29 points before halftime -- when the Kings already had a 23-4 advantage in fast-break points -- and then turned playmaker and rebounder after intermission. Included was a gift to Donte Greene for a flashy alley-oop dunk when Evans easily could have scored himself.

"He's going to have lots and lots of triple-doubles in his career," Kings coach Paul Westphal said. "He wasn't begging to go back in. We really don't play to pad stats and he doesn't need it. We play to win the game and he understands that."

The Wolves trailed by as many as 34 points in the third quarter on a night when the Wolves left Arco Arena with one word scrawled on the marker board in their locker room as they left to catch a flight to Phoenix:

Adversity.

I guess you could say they know something about that.

The Wolves have won once since Feb. 6 and that was that three-point victory on Feb. 23 at Miami against a Heat team missing Dwayne Wade.

Afterward, Kurt Rambis named when Damien Wilkins, Ramon Sessions, Ryan Gomes and Wayne Ellington when he said his team had some guys who continued to fight and swing their way through Sunday's latest dose of adversity.

Ellington was the guy Rambis finally decided had the best chance to defend Evans after he already had tried Wilkins, Sessions and Corey Brewer.

"Al had moments on there to add him to that group," Rambis said. "But my expectation of him is a lot higher than everybody else's too."

Rambis had to make a late lineup switch when Milicic grew too ill to play. That thrust Ryan Hollins back into the starting lineup, where he had been for 17consecutive games before the NBA suspended him for two games last week.

The Wolves flew to Phoenix after the game and will work out there this afternoon.

Rambis said he hopes to put Love through a hard practice today that he hopes will reveal whether Love's sprained foot is healed enough to allow him to play Tuesday against the Suns.