Pregame: Wolves Remain Confident As Love Misses Clippers Game

Minnesota Timberwolves forward Kevin Love suffered a mild concussion and neck strain in last night’s game at Denver, and stayed overnight at a hospital for precautionary reasons.
After further evaluation today, Love’s diagnosis remains unchanged and he has been cleared to return to Minneapolis. He will not play in tonight’s game against the L.A. Clippers. In the upcoming days, Love will be further evaluated by the Timberwolves medical staff, and an update to his status will be provided when warranted. Love suffered the injury at the 3:59 mark of the first quarter when he was struck by a JaVale McGee inadvertent elbow to the head.
“It wasn’t scary to see him get hit, because that’s part of the game,” forward Michael Beasley said. “But to see him not get up, as tough as Kevin is, that sent a chill down my spine.”
Still, the Wolves bounced back from losing their All-Star and showed their resiliency. Even with Love becoming the eighth player to miss a game this month on Minnesota’s roster, the Wolves rallied from 24 points down against the Nuggets to nearly steal a win. Minnesota lost 113-107.
Coach Rick Adelman will have a similar situation tonight with Love out and Derrick Williams stepping in. Williams, who scored 27 points in Denver, is one of several players with an opportunity to step up and contribute while Love is not in the lineup.
“With Kevin on the court, you kind of have to go through him because he’s our main guy,” forward Anthony Tolliver said. “But with him off the court, we have some opportunities for guys to step up.”
Williams and forward Anthony Randolph were prime examples last night. Randolph had 28 points and five blocks, helping out on both ends of the court.
“He’s a big time scoring presence and help us out on the rebounding end, but when a guy like him goes out we have to collectively step up for him,” Tolliver said. “Some of the guys like Anthony (Randolph) and Derrick picked it up on the scoring end of it. Who knows what would have happened if Kevin was on the court, but we made that run without him, so we know he’s not our whole team. We have a lot of guys that can play this game.”