Wolves have work to do on defense

Trying to take something positive out of a difficult end to a very long road trip, Timberwolves coach Flip Saunders stood outside the locker room in Dallas on Saturday night and ticked a few things off:

• Kevin Martin appears to have gotten the rhythm back into his shot.

•Saunders' team, filled with youth, had played hard to the end against the Mavericks after having failed to do so the night before in New Orleans.

"Considering the circumstances, I was happy with what they did," Saunders said. "Now we have to go back home. We have some days off, then we have four games at home. We have to get back to business.''

And that business has to start on the defensive end.

Against what appears to be a very good team, the Wolves shot 50 percent, held their own on the boards and managed to score 117 points, the most Dallas has given up this season.

But the defense was another story.

In the final two games of the just-finished six-game road trip, the Wolves surrendered 270 points. New Orleans and Dallas combined to shoot 108-for-178 (60.7 percent) and make 23 of 46 three-pointers (50 percent).

The Wolves were outscored by 62 points in the two games.

The question is what the Wolves can do while waiting for Ricky Rubio to come back from his ankle injury. It is still unclear when Thaddeus Young, whose mother died Thursday, will return to the team.

"Now we have to get back, with Ricky out, to working on defense," Saunders said. "We have a lot of things to work on.''

Martin got to American Airlines Center earlier than the rest of the team Saturday. He wanted to get on the court and work on his shot after having failed to score in double figures in two of his last three games.

But for Martin it was more than just practicing his shot. He and Rubio had developed a good rhythm, with Rubio being able to hit Martin at just the right time. Martin said he has struggled to develop the same thing with rookie Zach LaVine.

"I think we all know what kind of connection me and Ricky have," Martin said. "He goes down and I'm playing with Zach. And nothing bad about him, it's just a learning process. He's learning how to play the point guard position. He'll be a good one in the league. It's just tough at the moment, learning how to play with him.''

Saturday LaVine picked up two quick fouls in the first quarter and headed to the bench. Mo Williams replaced LaVine and the Wolves called some isolation plays for Martin to get him going. Once he got hot, he never really cooled off.

ESPN.com reported Sunday that the Wolves are in trade discussions with multiple teams — Cleveland and Houston foremost among them — involving forward Corey Brewer.

Each team has a trade exception large enough to absorb Brewer's $4.7 million salary by giving up a draft pick without taking back a player's salary in return.

The Wolves did not practice Sunday, but will return to work Monday. By that time more will be known about the pain in center Nikola Pekovic's right ankle. Pekovic played relatively little Friday and Saturday. In Dallas he started but ended the first half on the bench and did not play in the second. After the game he said the ankle — which kept him out of 28 of the Wolves' final 38 games last season — had flared up again.