The Wolves have lost five of their last six games, and things are only getting worse.
Saturday, Kevin Love and Kevin Martin missed Minnesota’s loss to Portland, Love with a minor quad injury, Martin with a broken thumb that will keep him out indefinitely.
After the loss to the Blazers, the Wolves took another blow when center Nikola Pekovic, who has missed the last seven games with bursitis of the ankle and is also out indefinitely, was essentially ruled out through the All-Star break.
Wolves head coach Rick Adelman told the Pioneer Press that he won’t “assume him (Pekovic) playing” before the week-long, unofficial mid-season respite.
The news doesn’t come as overly surprising considering Pekovic got out of a walking boot Monday and still has not done any “strenuous activity”, according to Adelman.
While the news isn’t surprising, it certainly comes as discouraging for a team that already is six games out of a playoff spot, and should it lose its next two games (home tilts against Houston and Denver), would drop to 24-29 on the season.
As for Love, his injury is not thought of as serious, but Adelman could choose to rest the All-Star starter until the break as well, with him missing two games in the past week for separate reasons.
Adelman could also choose the opposite since the two games are so important in building momentum for the final two months of the year, and for Minnesota not falling further from a postseason bid.
We’ll see what Adelman chooses when the Rockets and Wolves take the court at 7 p.m. tomorrow night.
