Williams plays through illnesses for Wolves in L.A.

LOS ANGELES – Timberwolves coach Flip Saunders on Friday warned reporters not too get to close to ailing Mo Williams, but he didn't hesitate to send the veteran point guard onto the Staples Center floor alongside four teammates against the Lakers.

Desperate times call for desperate measures, and that means calling upon a much-needed player still recovering from strep throat and pink eye.

Williams missed a home loss to Milwaukee on Wednesday, when Saunders had no other point guard options other than rookie Zach LaVine. Saunders asked Corey Brewer to handle the ball as a quasi-point guard and Brewer ended up with seven turnovers.

"Glad to have Mo back," Saunders said.

Williams went home to Dallas to see his family Sunday, and when he returned to Minnesota on Monday he was too sick to get out of bed the next two days.

"My first meal was Wednesday night," he said Friday. "I was fortunate enough to be able to eat a Thanksgiving meal yesterday."

He called himself ready to play but made no guarantees how much. He ended up playing 30 minutes and scoring 25 points on 8-for-13 shooting, including six three-pointers, in a 120-119 victory.

Injured centers Nikola Pekovic (sprained wrist, ankle) and Ronny Turiaf (hip) accompanied the team on this three-game trip that begins and ends in Los Angeles with a stop in Portland in between. Neither will play in any of the games, and Pekovic will be evaluated by medical staff again sometime this coming week.

Saunders said he is hopeful Pekovic will be cleared to practice after this next evaluation but said it will be at least a week of practice before he's game-ready even if he's cleared next week.

Saunders also said he's still considering petitioning the NBA for a roster exemption but probably won't do so until Pekovic gets looked at again.

The Wolves held their morning shootaround Friday on the UCLA campus, where LaVine and Shabazz Muhammad each played their one collegiate season.

Muhammad said practicing in the same gym where he trained as a Bruin "feels like home" and said he was happy to be back on campus and back in 80-degree California sunshine.

Friday's game reunited Saunders and former Gophers teammate Mychal Thompson, a Lakers broadcast analyst. Somebody asked Saunders if Thompson, from the Bahamas, really wore puka shells around his neck when he played.

"Puka shells, pom-poms on his feet and bells on his feet," Saunders said. "So as a guard the best thing about it, when I was coming down the floor on the break and he was trailing, you could always hear him coming. You always knew where to throw the ball."