This time, Love goes for 22 and 17 in 111-105 loss at Atlanta

Well, Timberwolves fans wanted to see what it'd look like if Kevin Love played 40 minutes a night, right?

You got your chance these last three days.

Love followed Friday's unforgettable and historic 31-point, 31-rebound night in nearly 41 minutes against the Knicks by surpassing the 40-minute mark this afternoon in Atlanta during a 111-105 loss to the Hawks.

And even though he looked exhausted at times and even though the Hawks paid special attention to him, Love still produced a 22-point, 17-rebound game.

Still, Friday's game apparently set a high standard because the woman who provides interviews for the Hawks' Philips Arena scoreboard feed during games pulled Atlanta forward Mo Evans aside after the game and asked him how his team held Love to fewer than 31 and 31.

"I heard that," Love said. "I turned around and heard, `How did you hold Kevin Love to under 30 and 30' and I was like, `You know, I'm sorry..."

Nothing to apologize for, really.

Love -- and Wolves fans everywhere -- have lamented his playing time, or rather lack of it through his young career here so far.

Until Friday, Love had never played 40 minutes in an NBA game (he had come within two seconds of doing so in a game against New Jersey last March).

Now, he's done it twice in three days, nearly reaching Friday's 40:39 time played with today's 40:36.

"It's hard," Kurt Rambis said. "Every player want to play extended minutes but they don't have any idea how hard it is to play those minutes with the expectation level that's attached to them and play well. It's extremely difficult."

Beasley knows it.

That 40 minutes tomorrow would be Monday night in Charlotte.

Love said he was feeling fine after Sunday's game.

"We all feel pretty good here," Love said. "Guys have, as Kurt would like to say, their boo-boos, but everybody feels good. We're hoping to get everybody back. Maybe the outcome would have been different if we had everybody healthy, but we're still happy with the way we played."

The Wolves left five guys back at home injured: Flynn, RIdnour, Pekovic, Ellington and Webster.

There's a meeting scheduled for Tuesday, at which time everybody will discuss whether Flynn is ready to make his season debut with limited minutes Wednesday against the Clippers.

If Love goes for 40 minutes again Monday, expect Sebastian Telfair to play another 39 minutes at least.

He did so today for the third consecutive game even though he arrived at Philips Arena and left it wearing a plastic boot to protect his right foot from plantar fasciitis in his heel.

Afterward, he shrugged off the foot -- but complained about the baggy, multi-striped brown socks he chose to wear to the game -- and was more concerned about the 15 turnovers that he, Love and Beasley combined to commit. The Wolves had 21 turnovers total.

He said the ball's got to be in those three guys' hands and they're not going to win if each commits five turnovers, as they all did today.

Also from the game:

The Wolves led 17-7 early, then Beasley picks up his second foul five minutes into the game and by the time he returns early in the second quarter, they're trailing 39-31. They never got closer than five points again, and that was only twice in the final four minutes.

He had 25 points in nearly 34 minutes after going off for 42 at Sacramento and putting up 35 against the Knicks.

* Rambis went small much of the game against a Hawks team that starts relatively small with Marvin Williams, Josh Smith and Al Horford. Darko played just 20 minutes and was no factor really (2 points, 2 rebounds, 2 assists, although he did have 3 blocks). I'd like to see a combination of Love at the 5, Beasley at 4, Wes at 3, Martell at 2 and Flynn at the point when everybody gets healthy.

* Anthony Tolliver had his biggest scoring game since opening night, with 13 points. He scored 14 in the opener, and had seven rebounds and four blocks that night as well, but this time he didn't play down the stretch while Love sat, thankfully.

* Lazar Hayward was first player off the bench when Beasley got in foul trouble because Rambis was saving Corey Brewer to defend Hawks sixth man Jamal Crawford.

The season series is already over between these two teams and the season isn't even three weeks old yet. The Hawks beat the Wolves by 10 at Target Center 10 days ago.

That's it from Atlanta tonight (I wish all games were at 2 pm)