Jonah BallowWolves Editor/Writer
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Darko Milicic earned his first start in a Wolves uniform, finishing with six points and two rebounds. Rambis evaluated his performance, "It's unfortunate that he got into foul trouble. Everything that he's doing -- we're seeing glimpses of tremendous potential, for him and for us… He has such tremendous vision and massive capabilities, and we really haven't seen an exorbitant amount of what he can do scoring-wise. But it's there. It's just starting to poke out, and that's why we're doing things in practice to encourage him to be not only passing the basketball, but to be looking for goal opportunities as well."
The Mavericks utilized a defensive scheme that is rarely seen from NBA teams. Head coach Kurt Rambis explained how Dallas hurt them with a zone defense, "We've seen them play it before. Our guys obviously didn't do the things that we worked on and practiced on, and they weren't finding the guys inside. Our big weren't doing a great job; they were doing an okay job of trying to get themselves available inside. But, that's why most teams go into a zone, because most teams don't spend a lot of time working on it. But we had talked about it, we had practiced against it, we worked on plays…"
Overall, Rambis was pleased to see his team battle one of the most talented squads in the Western Conference until the final buzzer. Without starting center Al Jefferson, shooting guard Wayne Ellington, and big man Nathan Jawai, Minnesota did not allow the Mavericks to gain an easy victory.
"I thought our guys did a great job," Rambis said. "They overcame a lot of obstacles, they played very hard…again we turned the ball over way too much, dug ourselves a really deep hole, but I was pleased with how they fought and pleased with how they moved the ball offensively… overall, I thought they played hard, I thought there was passion. They didn't quit in the ball game; they continued to play, they continued to fight."
Speaking of Ellington and Jawai, both players were unable to participate in today's practice after suffering ankle injuries on Monday.
The Wolves will practice again tomorrow in preparation for a Saturday night contest against Houston at 7 PM. Minnesota then hosts three playoff teams at the Target Center, welcoming Dallas, Denver, and San Antonio this week.
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