Timberwolves center Nikola Pekovic declared himself feeling good after Wednesday's return to action, but Kevin Martin won't play tonight against New Orleans at Target Center.
Martin (wrist surgery) joins Ricky Rubio (sprained ankle) and Shabazz Muhammad (outer oblique strain) on the list of players ruled out for tonight's game.
Pekovic will be back on the floor after playing nearly 23 minutes in his return Wednesday. He had missed 31 consecutive games until he went 5-for-11 from the floor and had four rebounds and 14 points against Dallas.
Pekovic said he still has some pain in that troublesome ankle, but didn't sound concerned about it. He said he was surprised his conditioning was as good as it was in Wednesday's game.
"I feel better," he said. "If it's going to be like this and if I feel like this, it's going to be good. It's only one game but still today, I feel better. My foot doesn't feel sore. I still got some pain, but it's basically nothing worse than days before."
Martin wore a brace on that shooting wrist at today's shootaround and declared himself not yet ready to play. He had hoped to play sometime on a four-game trip that ended Monday in Charlotte, but hasn't advanced yet through a process he says is all about learning how to play with pain, soreness and pins inserted into the wrist with which he shoots.
His right shooting wrist swelled up on him Tuesday and Wednesday and he had fluid drained from it on Thursday, a setback that has delayed his return from November surgery at least from Wednesday's loss against Dallas until Sunday in Atlanta at the earliest.
He noticed the wrist was not feeling right while shooting on Monday and it continued to bother him on Tuesday and swelled noticeably by Wednesday morning.
