TIMBERWOLVES: Tuesday Practice Report

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Jonah Ballow
Wolves Editor/Writer
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Kurt Rambis

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On Tuesday afternoon, the Wolves gathered at the practice facility, taking advantage of valuable court time to hopefully reverse a long losing skid. With fresh legs, the Wolves should be prepared for a Houston team entering the second game of a back-to-back. The 6-4 Rockets upset the Lakers in Los Angeles on Sunday night behind 33 points from point guard Aaron Brooks.

Rambis Pleased with Progress
The step-by-step building of a championship-caliber team can be an arduous process for the fan base and franchise. While looking at the big picture beyond the record, Rambis can see improvement from his squad.

"We're going to continue to grow. We've gotten a lot better since training camp, individuals have gotten better, and our team has gotten better, so we just have to continue to improve."

This week is a crucial period of time for the Wolves to focus on offensive and defensive sets. Monday, Tuesday, Thursday, and Friday will provide significant opportunities for the coaching staff to implement schemes that have been put on the back burner due to the intense NBA schedule.

"It's always valuable to get this young team out on the floor to show them some different things they can do to help themselves to play a little bit better basketball. We had a nice little video session, some good things, some educational points that were brought out. The players want to learn, they're still doing the right things, it's never going to be anything this season or even next season that is corrected quickly. To teach the young players that we have, they have to go through those situations in practice, they have to go through those situations in games in order to gain the knowledge that it takes to be able to react quickly, read quickly and make the appropriate decision in ball games."

More on Love
Yesterday, we reported that Kevin Love would undergo X-rays on his surgically repaired finger on Friday. The power forward said he was not quite sure of the date for his next check up but anticipates a return to the floor soon.

"I've been shooting with the team a little bit, running through some plays, doing a lot more stuff, so hopefully on Friday we get the X-rays back. I don't know when it's going to happen, if we have them scheduled for this week, so hopefully that will be the time and I will be back."

Love addressed his conditioning at this point in preparation for his season debut.

"I have to because I want to jump in and play right away. You can never really implement all the conditioning as far as playing goes. I hope when I get back, I can really get into playing shape as easy as possible."

Watching the Wolves from the sidelines, Love provided a couple keys to the contest on Wednesday night against Houston.

"They're very scrappy, something we want to be as well. We are just going to have to utilize Al [Jefferson] as much as possible, utilize Pecherov as much as possible, use our size as an advantage against their small-ball."

The team will shootaround Wednesday morning and then hit the floor at the Target Center in the first matchup against Houston this season. Most likely, the Rockets will not shootaround after a hosting Phoenix tonight.

For more news and notes on the team follow the Minnesota Timberwolves and Jonah on Twitter.