Wolves starters get a break, Pacers deliver 96-91 comeback victory

Rick Adelman played Friday night's rematch with the Pacers with the future, specifically Saturday night's home game against Chicago, in mind.

He gave Andrei Kirilenko the entire night off at small forward, and started Derrick Williams there instead and delivered a 25-point performance.

Then barely played any of the other four starters beyond the first quarter before he turned the game into an evaluation night by playing everybody from Dante Cunningham's 32 minutes to Will Conroy's 30.

Even camp invitees Chris Johnson and Jermaine Taylor played the final six minutes and led back from 12 behind midway through the fourth quarter to within three points in the final three minutes.

Brandon Roy played the first 8:15 and then sat down for the night to rest those knees for Saturday's game.

Kevin Love and Nikola Pekovic played the entire first quarter and then were done.

J.J. Barea played the most of those other four starters, going nearly 16 minutes before he called it out.

A couple thoughts from the game:

* Williams struggled early in a tough matchup against Paul George at small forward, but stuck with it and scored 15 of those 25 points in the second half. Afterward, Adelman praised him for his second, third and fourth efforts.

* Alexey Shved scored his first NBA hoop -- a three-pointer from the right wing, no less -- and scored 7 points in nearly 20 minutes. He had two steals and two turnovers but not an assist and briefly played point guard when Adelman gave Conroy a brief rest.

* Chase Budinger is going to be an instant-offense guy off the bench. He scored 11 points in 12 first-half minutes and finished with 14 points in nearly 26 minutes.

That's all from Indianapolis tonight. There should be some postgame video with Adelman, DWill and Love imbedded in here by morning.