Starting for Wolves challenges Derrick Williams

Timberwolves rookie Derrick Williams returned to the starting lineup six games ago, a promotion that coincided with starting center Nikola Pekovic finally conceding that the bone spurs on his right ankle are too painful for him to keep playing.

In those six games, he shot 32.3 percent from the field. In the six games before that as a reserve, he shot 46.5 percent.

The difference?

Well, uh, for starters, you don't encounter Kevin Garnett's long limbs and roaming presence as he did on Friday night, when he went 5-for-14 and scored 14 points in a home loss to the Celtics.

"He's a one-of-a-kind player," Williams said. "That's why he's still doing what he does until this day."

Garnett is an example of the players Williams faces when he begins the game alongside Kevin Love, Luke Ridnour and the others, as opposed to coming off the bench.

"When you start, you start getting more minutes, going up against the other team's starters," Wolves coach Rick Adelman said. "It's a little different sometimes than when you go in and have a bunch of backups in there. He's attacking the basket, but he's not finishing at the basket.

Williams has struggled to finish at the basket, often trying to score on swooping moves with the ball extended out in one hand.

"I've just been trying to finish those easy ones that I've been getting," Williams said. "That's four, six, eight points every single game, not just myself but others missing those easy ones. If we put those all together, we can be a little bit closer."

He's missing those little ones around the basket and missing from three-point range as well, shooting 27 percent (14-for-52) in March. The same guy who still believes the three-point shot will help define his game is shooting 29.6 percent from there this season.

"There are times when he's struggling at the three-point line," Adelman said. "There is no rule that says you can't move in 2 or 3 feet. But in a lot of the stuff we do, that shot is going to be there. A lot. And he has had games where he has knocked 'em down.

"With rookies, I've always been one that you give 'em rope and see what they can do and what they can't do. It's something we'll talk about when he starts to work on his game this summer."

That means Pekovic intends to play in one or both games.