LOS ANGELES - With 13 games remaining and a murderous stretch of games beginning Friday night against the Lakers in Los Angeles, one question looms for the Timberwolves, thumped in road games on Sunday in Golden State and Wednesday in Utah:
What do they have left to play for?
After Wednesday's 119-104 loss, Wolves coach Kurt Rambis mentioned the difference between the Jazz, still chasing the final Western Conference playoff spot, and his team, which he admitted hasn't played for anything tangible at least since the All-Star break.
So what's the answer?
"I love to play basketball," Rambis said. "If they don't love to play, it's probably going to be hard. They have to find the joy in playing, the joy in winning, the joy in competing, the joy in playing hard."
That kind of joy was hard to find Wednesday in Utah, where the Wolves trailed by 26 points before halftime and allowed guard C.J. Miles a career-high 40 points.
"You've got to look at yourself in the mirror," veteran point guard Luke Ridnour said. "We're getting paid to play a game, and at the end of the day we're pretty blessed to be here. We've got to take advantage of that, if nothing else continue to play and compete for ourselves.
"Obviously, we haven't won the amount of games as we would have liked, but we're still playing and we got to play it out until there are no more games left. We've got to try to get as many wins as we can."
