Love is expected to have his fractured left hand X-rayed again on Friday. If it has healed sufficiently and he's cleared for full-contact practice, he estimates he'll be ready to play a game by the middle to end of next week.

Rambis, though, cautions about expecting too much, too soon, from Love's presence for the first time this regular season.

"He's not going to be someone who will turn everything around all of a sudden," Rambis said. "Because of his competitiveness, how he fits in well with everything we're doing, all of that will help us out."

--Just for the record, and in case you had to ask: The Wolves have no interest in signing Allen Iverson.

The man they call "The Answer" is looking for a job because he still wants to be a starter and presumably still wants to be The Man, at age 34.

"We have young point guards we want to develop," Rambis said. "For him to come in and start ... he wants to play a lot of minutes, too. We're giving a lot of minutes to our young guys. That combination just doesn't work."

Asked if he was surprised Iverson supposedly has retired, Rambis said, "Kind of yes and kind of no. When players get into the twilight of their career, the ones who fit in somewhere are the ones who adjust how they're going to contribute and who they are.

"If they insist on starting somewhere, sometimes that's hard for an organization. A lot of organizations would love to have his instant offense off the bench. It's hard for them to accept that he just wants to come in and start."

QUOTE TO NOTE: "We had a lot of confidence coming into the locker room at halftime. We were only down 14." -- Wolves forward Damien Wilkins in a statement that says everything about his team's 2-15 season start.