Wolves notes: Injuries have Dieng getting longer minutes, bigger responsibility

Wolves second-year center Gorgui Dieng has been pushed into a starting role — and big minutes — by injuries to Nikola Pekovic and Ronny Turiaf.

For the most part, Dieng has held his own. Starting the past 14 games, he has averaged 8.9 points, 8.6 rebounds and 2.8 assists while playing 31.2 minutes per game. Overall this season Dieng has three double-doubles. In Friday's loss to Oklahoma City he had 11 points, nine rebounds, four assists and four blocks.

Good numbers, but Wolves coach Flip Saunders also saw a negative.

"I thought Gorgui was the most undisciplined, defensively, as he has been," Saunders said. Saunders felt Dieng strayed from the basket too often, leaving it unprotected. The Wolves want him down low.

"One thing with Gorgui, he is a very direction-oriented player," Saunders said. "When he learns something, he'll know it for the next 10 years. But it takes him repetitions to learn it, and we're asking him to do a lot. We're asking him to rebound, anchor the defense and do a lot of things.''

Another thing Saunders would like to see more of out of Dieng is better communication. Strange, perhaps, for a fellow who speaks five languages. But Saunders wants more volume. And not just out of Dieng.

"We have a lot of guys who don't talk real loud," Saunders said. "They don't have a presence.''

"He's been trying the last few weeks," Saunders said. "He's gone through some different situations to try to rehab that. We came to the conclusion that he's going to have surgery.''

Turiaf has appeared in only two games this season, getting one rebound and two assists in 18-plus minutes of playing time. He spent the first five games and the past 14 on the inactive list.

Saunders said more would be known after the surgery, which will be performed by Dr. Bryan Kelly at the Hospital for Special Surgery — but he said Turiaf will be out a long while. "It's a matter of if it's going to be a while or be the season," Saunders said.

The last time the Lakers and Wolves played, on Nov. 28 in Los Angeles, rookie guard Zach LaVine came off the bench to score a game-high 28 points on 11-for-14 shooting. LaVine made both of his three-pointers and all four of his free throws that night and passed for five assists.

Lakers coach Byron Scott admitted LaVine stunned the Lakers with that performance. "He played a whole lot better than we anticipated," Scott said after the Lakers' morning shootaround. "So I won't say we'll be giving him special attention, but he got our attention. Let's put it that way.''

That said, Scott made a point to praise LaVine, becoming the latest to say LaVine has some similarities to Oklahoma City star Russell Westbrook. "He's so young, he's just a pup," Scott said. "If you give him a couple more years, then you can probably make those comparisons a little bit more. But right now, from an athletic standpoint, at point guard, I don't think there is a point guard in the league who is more athletic than him. He just has to grow."