As weeks go, this has been a pretty good one for the Wolves. For a season that has started with two of the team’s best players sidelined due to injury, these Wolves have banded together and delivered the best start in more than a decade at three wins in four games. Just days ago, as the nation was casting ballots, the Wolves were casting shot after shot in a furious record setting second half in Brooklyn. That win is still being talked about and for good reason. Forget that it’s the fourth best comeback in team history. Forget that the team rallied from more than 20-down after losing 48-hours earlier to a very beatable Toronto club coached by former boss Dwane Casey. What was the most impressive element of this win over the new look and en vogue Nets is how they did it. Minnesota used a very athletic and smaller line-up to out savvy Brooklyn. Led by Russians Andrei Kirilenko and Alexey Shevd, Dante Cunningham and Chase Budinger, the Wolves out-ran, out-rebounded, protected the ball and played like they were on a nearby playground under the lights instead of in that new snazzy Barclays Center. That is the kind of game NBA players crave. The kind you enjoy watching from the bench. The kind you never forget when you are playing and contributing. Prior to the Orlando game, I asked a few of the players what it was like. Their responses, “Unforgettable.” “Too much fun.” “______ awesome.” Yep. The game also underscores just what Coach Rick Adelman is trying to accomplish here. Build a winner with interchangable parts. When one struggles, another picks up the pieces. Be more athletic and physical than the opponent. Enjoy your “job.” It is only basketball. And on that night in Brooklyn, the basketball was a lot more fun than balloting. Days later back home, the Wolves didn’t let up off the gas. Against Orlando, from the get-go, the Wolves were good defensively, jumped out to a first quarter that saw them shoot 67 percent, 12 of their 25 first quarter points were in the paint and they built a 15 point lead over the Magic.
