Wolves star Al Jefferson believes his team is capable of that and more.

"I hope I don't knock other teams by saying this, but I really believe we can go on one of those runs like Portland did last year," he said Tuesday, referring to the Trail Blazers' 17-1 stretch. "Especially if you look at the games we have lost and how close. ... We were up in the fourth in every one of those games. We've just got to go finish them, and I think we can get something going here."

After a 1-8 start, the Wolves have won two of their past three games, with victories over Philadelphia (102-96) and Detroit sandwiched around an ugly 95-78 home loss to Boston.

Even so, they figure to have their hands full with the Suns, who took a 9-5 record into Tuesday night's game at Oklahoma City.

"They're still a very potent team," Wolves coach Randy Wittman said. "They're one of the elite teams in the West. We just played one of the elite teams in the East and came away with a W, and that's what we've got to do tomorrow."

Wittman said the Suns are less of a run-and-gun team under new coach Terry Porter, but they still like to push the ball with point guard Steve Nash.

Then there's center Shaquille O'Neal, who remains a force in the middle, even at 36.

"Shaq, his name speaks for itself," Jefferson said. "I don't care if he's 40 years old. He's still going to be the Shaq that I loved watching growing up. You've got to give him a lot of respect."

Asked if he patterned his game after O'Neal's, Jefferson said: "Yeah, until he dunked on me my rookie year. He used to be my favorite until he dunked on me."

Asked if he's looking forward to matching up on O'Neal, Jefferson rolled his eyes and smiled.

"I just hope Jason (Collins) doesn't get into foul trouble," he said.

All kidding aside, Jefferson said the insertion of Collins as the Wolves' starting center four games ago has helped free him up on offense and defense.

The coaches' decision to pare down the offense for the Detroit game also paid immediate dividends, allowing point guard Randy Foye (23 points, 14 assists) and others to focus on executing and play more freely.

"It's a simple game," Jefferson said "Just set picks, we've got to get our shooters open and the main thing is defense. We've got to keep guys in front of us. We've got to help each other. ... I think that was the key."

Wittman called the Detroit game the best screening performance of the season by his big men, and Jefferson concurred.

"We've got to get our shooters open," Jefferson said. "We've got to get them shots. Mike Miller, we've got to get him shots. And to get him shots, we've got to set picks to get him open. I've been watching a lot of film, and I haven't been setting picks for (squat), to be honest with you, to get him open. It kind of made me mad because he's our best shooter. If we don't get him open, he's not going to get his shots. ... By us getting them open, it gets us open."

Jefferson has been a tough matchup for the Suns, averaging 30.5 points in their four meetings last season and 35.5 in the two Minnesota victories.

Coming off his first career win in the Pistons' home building, the Wolves' big man likes where his team is going.

"The way we ran our offense, the way we stayed focused on defense and did what we're supposed to do," Jefferson said, "it just proved to us that we can do this every night."

Short story: Wittman has been deliberately vague about how much the offense was pared down for the last game, but it was significant.

"We had about 75 plays in our playbook, and we pared it down to 10 or 15," rookie forward Kevin Love said, "so that helps a lot."

Briefly: Guards Rashad McCants (back) and Kevin Ollie (calf) participated in practice on a limited basis, but their status for tonight remains uncertain.