The Wolves just finished an afternoon practice in Oakland and Kevin Love without outright saying it said he didn't make the Western Conference's starting five in worldwide fan balloting that will be announced tonight on TNT.
No starting love for Love in All-Star balloting
The NBA's All-Star starters will be announced tonight at 6 p.m. on TNT. Kevin Love said he does not plan to watch and that if he comes within 10,000 votes of the Clippers' Blake Griffin he'll consider it a moral victory.
January 23, 2014 at 10:40PM
He has dinner plans scheduled in San Francisco tonight and said he doesn't plan on watching the announcement show, even though it starts at 4 pm here in California and 6 pm back home in Minnesota,.
He said he'll consider it a moral victory if he comes within 10,000 votes of Clippers forward Blake Griffin, whom he trailed by 17,000 in the last fan balloting results that were released last week.
"I guess the question is how close was I," he said.
The Wolves launched a fan campaign to get Love voted in as a starting, doing all kinds of promotions to encourage fans to vote for him via Twitter, Facebook, Instragram and on nba.com. But it apparently wasn't quite enough.
"It's always cool to get voted for," Love said. "It means you're popular around the league and popular in this global sport. It'd be awesome if I get it."
If the final frontcourt voting indeed remains with Kevin Durant, Dwight Howard and Griffin being the three starters chosen, Western Conference coaches still undoubtedly will vote Love in as a reserve.
"I still think I'll make the team," Love said.
Rick Adelman has no doubt Love will be picked to play in New Orleans next month either way.
"I don't think there should be," Adelman said. "He has had a great year. There are a lot of good forwards in the West, but he's been the most consistent guy of all the guys. I don't know where we'd be without him with the year he has had."
Other news from practice:'
Kevin Martin practiced today with that lacerated pinkie finger on this right shooting hand that he injured going for a steal Tuesday night in Utah, but Alexey Shved didn't.
Shved broke his nose in that game and Adelman said after practice today that Shved feels fine and could have practiced, but they're waiting for a protective mask to arrive that he'll wear.
Martin said he expects to play Friday against Golden State, but Adelman said he wasn't sure if Shved will play.
The “sticky” ball that coach Chris Finch so deplores showed up for the first game, after a preseason when offense happened smoothly. On defense, “resistance” was missing, the coach said.
