Kevin Garnett didn't talk after this morning's shootaround in Los Angeles -- he hasn't publicly since Flip Saunders died on Sunday and might not speak about it for some time -- and Sam Mitchell didn't want to discuss anything other than tonight's season opener against the Lakers at Staples Center.
The 9:30 p.m. game will be carried nationally on ESPN.
Asked about the mood of his team as they prepare to play just three days after learning of their coach's death, Mitchell said, "Guys, ask me basketball questions all right. Everybody deals with things in different ways. For right now, we need to talk about basketball."
Everybody deals with things in their own way and second-year guard Zach LaVine's way was to go to a gym at UCLA where he played one collegiate season and shoot for about 40 minutes late Tuesday night after the team arrived in L.A.
"I came here and just shot," he said about the same gym in which the Wolves held their Wednesday morning shootaround. "Take my mind off some things. The gym, that's my safe spot. You know me. We're anxious and ready to play."
Tonight's game matches last summer's draft top two picks -- the Wolves' No. 1 Karl-Anthony Towns and the Lakers' No. 2 D'Angelo Russell -- in the season opener. The two were friendly in high school, then grew closer when they trained, ate and stayed in the same hotel together for two or more months as each prepared for the draft last spring.
"We talk a lot," Towns said Wednesday morning. "Yesterday was the first day he didn't talk. That just shows the competitive juices are following through both of us now."
Mitchell said after shoot that all his players are healthy and ready to go.
