OK, so the Bucks were missing more than half of their regular rotation in Monday’s preseason opener on a night when Scott Skiles apparently was resting his team for its upcoming trip to China (the Bucks were scheduled to go there with Yi Jianlian, but then they went and traded him to New Jersey so the Nets and Yi are going to Europe and the Bucks to Beijing)

But, still to see the Wolves ahead by as many as 45 points after a season like the last one…

“I know they didn’t play all their guys,” Al Jefferson said. “But that scoreboard still looked pretty good.”

The Wolves started Jefferson and he, wow, did he signs of rust from the sprained knee ligament: He scored his team’s first 10 points, had 18 in as many minutes of action and scored seemingly at will against a Bucks team that sent home Andrew Bogut because of a migraine headache, sat rookie Joe Alexander (abdominal strain) and guards Luke Ridnour (knee tendinitis), Tyronn Lue (groin) and Charlie Bell (Achilles tendinitis) and shut down Richard Jefferson (strained quad) after eight minutes.

“Kind of like riding a bike,” he said about his ability to score whether he’s in top game shape or night.

Other observations and impressions:

* The Wolves shot 58.2 percent from the field and held the Bucks to 33.8 percent and afterward Randy Wittman said he was pleased with his team’s attention to detail on defense. He said it mattered not that the Bucks had everybody but Michael Redd, Ramon Sessions, Charlies Villanueva, Dan Gadzuric and Francisco Elson sidelined. “This isn’t a game of wins and losses,” he said. “This is a practice for us.  The good thing about tonight is we get to practice against somebody else instead of ourselves.”

* Kevin Love is going to be fine, more than fine. He was the first fellow off the bench and played neary 23 minutes. Shot 6 for 10, was 1 for 2 from three-point range,  had five rebounds, a couple of turnovers and a block and an assist. One of his misses was an airball. A dunk attempt got stuck between the rim and the backboard. “I got everything out of the way on the first night,” he said.

*Rashad McCants is looking mighty confident: 22 points in 19 minutes off the bench, including 12 free-throw attempts (made 10 of them). He even had three steals!

*All 15 healthy players (Brian Cardinal, Calvin Booth and of course Jason Collins were out) played at least three minutes each. Wittman said he wants to play no more than 10 guys on a given night and then rotate the time among other players the next time out. But the nature of Monday’s game got everybody on the floor, evein if Kevin Ollie (three minutes), Blake Ahearn (eight minutes), Rodney Carney (seven) and Rafael Araujo (four) played only fleetingly.

*The Wolves aren’t particularly tall (especially with Collins injured) but they sure have got a lot of bulk and some length with Jefferson, Love, Craig Smith, Ryan Gomes, even a big shooting guard in Mike Miller and a long small forward in Corey Brewer out there.

*Wittman said he was happy with everything but transition defense and said that will be the test for his team this year. “We gave up too many long passes behind our defenders,” he said. “Our bigs are going to have work at sprinting back down the court.”

*Corey Brewer made a three-pointer (ok, so it rattled round and round, but it went in)! He made 7 of 36 all last season and was 1 for 1 on Monday. He also was 5 for 8 from the field overall in nearly 26 minutes and scored 12.

*I like the crew Wittman’s going to be able to bring off the bench: McCants (that sixth man role suits him well), Telfair, Craig Smith, probably Brewer (or Gomes). I’m betting Love works his way into the starting lineup by opening night.  And that’s not including Carney, who played just seven minutes tonight.

*Instead of facing Richard Jefferson, Bogut, Alexander, Ridnour, Lue,  etc., the Wolves faced some guys named Adrian Griffin, Malik Allen, Matt Freije, T.J. Cummings and Ron Howard (I loved Cinderella Man!). Bucks rookie guard Kevin Kruger looks so much like like daddy Lon, it’s frightening.

I thought I was joking a few weeks ago when I said, after Al Jefferson’s injured his, Randy Wittman had just named Mark Madsen the starting center for the rest of the season.

Well, I guess not.

“Mad Dog” is your starting center tonight in the Wolves’ preseason opener at Milwaukee. He anchors a starting five that includes Randy Foye, Mike Miller, Ryan Gomes and Al Jefferson.

Wittman said he plans to play Jefferson, back from that sprained knee ligament earlier than expected, between 20 and 24 minutes, depending on his conditioning.

Wittman calls Madsen’s starting spot earned from his conscientious play during training camp.

Brian Cardinal won’t play because of a calf injury. Calvin Booth and Jason Collins did not make the trip, which the Wolves made by chartered aircraft Monday afternoon after holding a morning practice at Target Center.

Collins is expected to travel to Los Angeles Tuesday to see his doctor for a check-up on his elbow, which is recovering from surgery after that golf-cart accident last month. Collins still is expected out until after the Oct. 29 regular-season opener.

The Wolves broke training camp Saturday night and headed home from Mankato limping and sore after five long days. Here’s this, that and the other from a 62-62 tie between the “White” and the “Black” teams in a camp-ending public scrimmage at Bresnan Arena.

The White team: Rodney Carney, Ryan Gomes, Al Jefferson, Mike Miller, Randy Foye, Kevin Love, Kevin Ollie, Chris Richard.

The Black team: Corey Brewer, Craig Smith, Mark Madsen, Rashad McCants, Sebastian Telfair, Blake Ahearn, Rafael Araujo.

Brian Cardinal didn’t play because of a calf injury. Mike Miller didn’t finish because of a sore hamstring that he called no big deal afterward.

Al Jefferson started and showed he is several days ahead of his expected recovery from that sprained knee ligament suffered in a preseason workout at Target Center last month. Expect him to play some when the Wolves play their first preseason game at Milwaukee on Monday.

“I know me, I know my body,” he said. “I heal so fast.”

Kevin Love showed the effects of his first NBA training camp. Afterward, he lamented all his missed shots in a 2-for-8 night, including a missed tip with his left hand of a Kevin Olllie miss that would have won the game for the White team, which came back from 51-41 behind to claim the tie.

Said Randy Wittman: “Typical rookie stuff. He has reached that point where he doesn’t know which way he’s going. His body hurts. His head hurts. He has reached the rookie wall in training camp.”

After Saturday’s morning practice, Wittman praised Sebastian Telfair for the poise and command he showed in camp from the point-guard spot, then Telfair had a 1-for-9 shooting night and got burned by Randy Foye in a seven-minute final quarter, when Foye scored all of his 14 points.

Foye said he was just doing what his coaches told him to: Get others involved in the offense early. “When they tell me to go, I’ll go and do what I did the last seven minutes,” he said.

Rashad McCants was the most assertive offensive player on the floor. He led everybody with 19 points on 6 for 14 and afterward Wittman praised him for his “effort,” which presumably included his work on the defensive end.

Veteran Calvin Booth didn’t do anything more than ride the exercise bike and walk around the upper concourse during training camp because of back spasms. Wittman called the lack of good health and production from his big men the most disappointing aspect of training camp.

Foye called the five days the most “point on,” “heady” training camp he has ever participated in, college or pro. “I don’t think I’ve ever been through a camp like that,” he said.

The Wolves’ two-a-days are over. Sunday is the last days that by league rules they could do so, but Wittman will have his guys practice just once, this afternoon, before they fly to Milwaukee Monday to play the Bucks that night.

Kevin McHale was right: Shaun Livingston is going to Miami. He signed with the Heat Friday, four days after McHale said the free agent guard would end up in South Beach. The Wolves pursued Livingston hard for their third point guard spot, but he apparently was swayed by the chance to play with Dwyane Wade. (The warm weather probably didn’t hurt, either.)

The Wolves will carry on with NBA D League player Blake Ahearn and 11-year vet Kevin Ollie competing for the spot behind Randy Foye and Sebastian Telfair.

AN EXTRA AFTER FRIDAY’S EVENING PRACTICE

The Wolves scrimmaged for about 40 minutes Friday night. Al Jefferson went live for all of it and looked like his old self around the basket, except for the brace on his right knee. Randy Wittman said he think Jefferson will sit out Saturday night’s public scrimmage in Mankato just as a precaution, but left open the possibility he’d play if Jefferson awoke Saturday morning and felt terrific.

Kevin Love, however, didn’t complete the scrimmage after getting kneed in the thigh. He had a rough day, admitting he got lost and missed assignments in the morning session. He just looks sore and fatigued from seven practice sessions in four days and rather glumly Friday night fulfilled his rookie obligation of gathering everybody’s sneakers and toting them away in a mesh bag.

“Welcome to the NBA,” Wittman said about Love’s long day.

Blake Ahearn took Telfair’s finger in the eye and Love snagged a finger he injured the other day during an exhausting drill with which the Wolves ended the Friday morning practice. The 90-second, 5-on-5 drill is one borrowed from USC and former Chicago Bulls coach Tim Floyd, a drill Fred Hoiberg used to run for Floyd at Iowa State and one which future Wolf Ervin Johnson appropriately gave the name “The Man Drill” when he played for Floyd at the University of New Orleans.

The specifics: 90 seconds. No screening, no dribbling, no shooting. The offensive team must run out the 90 seconds by passing the ball every three seconds without the defense recording five deflections or turnovers. The passer must cut to the hoop after delivering the ball.

There was plenty of panting and tugging on the shorts’ hems after this one.

“Ninety seconds doesn’t sound like a long time, but it’s long when you can’t do those things,” Wittman said. “It teaches you to get open, to make hard cuts, to take care of the ball. That’s a tough drill.”

And it won’t be the last time the Wolves see this one.

“Man…man…,” Telfair said, when asked about it. “Well, it’s a drill.”

And on the third day, the Wolves rested.

Sort of.

They practiced just once, but it was a three-hour, 15-minute session that gave them the day off from two-a-day practices they held on Tuesday and Wednesday.

Included on Thursday was more than 30 minutes when Al Jefferson participated in live 2-on-2 drills, a development that was another step forth in his recovery from a sprained medial collateral ligament.

Expect Big Al to get back to practice normally sometime next week. Randy Wittman said he expects Jefferson to miss at least the first couple preseason games, which would rule him out for games Monday at Milwaukee, Wednesday against Oklahoma City in Billings, Mt., and possibly next Friday at Denver.

“He’s lost a little conditioning,” Wittman said. “If you get out there and start playing when you’re not in good condition, that’s when you get hurt. He hasn’t lost that much. He’s worked pretty hard through the summer. But he’s got to get himself to the points where his teammmates are now (physically after five hard practices).”

The Wolves did live 5-on-5 work for about the final 40 minutes of Thursday’s practice. There was a scare when Kevin Love stepped on Craig Smith’s foot and went down hard. Afterward, Love said he slightly hyperextended his leg, but he got up and ran it off.

“This is kind of the hump day of fighting through the soreness,” Wittman said. “They’re going through a tough stretch of soreness. Once your body get through that, you won’t have that soreness the rest of the season. That’s why we went one long one today instead of two.”

Corey Brewer actually thrived in the full-court running, getting to the basket several times for lay-ins and/or drawing fouls. The practice ended with Brian Cardinal hitting a decisive shot off a Randy Foye feed.
Wittman said he has put in just enough offense to allow his players to run up and down the floor and get into some basic offensive sets.  They wrap up camp with a public scrimmage here in Mankato Saturday night and play the Bucks on Monday.

“Exhibition is practice to me,” Wittman said. “I’m not really concerned about Monday. It’s probably not going to look real pretty offensively. I want to see how we’re going to look defensively. ”

Al Jefferson ramped up his activity in today’s morning practice, participating in run-throughs of the team’s offensive and defensive schemes both during the beginning and near the end of a two-hour workout at Bresnan Arena.

“First time he’s upped it to this level,” Randy Wittman said. “Still running on eggshells a little bit, I think. I don’t see it too much longer before he’s going to be pretty ready. As long as he doesn’t have soreness, mentally he’ll be fine.”

Wittman said Jefferson could join in contact drills before the Wolves break camp in Mankato after Saturday night’s scrimmage.

“It wouldn’t surprise me,” he said. “But I don’t want to put him out there with anything in his mind that he’s hurting.”

Other takes from this early on in camp:

*Shaun Livingston remains unsigned, but my bet is that he signs with Miami. Forget all that stuff Pat Riley said yesterday about his going to the Heat being a “dead issue.” Just remember all that silliness about Michael Beasley at draft time; whatever he says, you can usually believe the opposite. Since Livingson isn’t ready yet anyway, I’m guessing the Heat are just waiting until they can trade a salary to clear some cap space unless the Wolves decide to sweeten the pot.

*Tough to get a read on players this early because Wittman is running through so many of the basics so far and media weasles only get to see the closing minutes of practice, but one guy who has caught my eye is Sebastian Telfair. He just looks so much more assertive and decisive than he was last season, particularly early in the year. And when I’ve watched, he’s been making some jumpers.

*Wittman says it ain’t so and Kevin Love said maybe just a little, but it looks to me like the rookie has put back on some of those 15 pounds he lost preparing for the draft. His backside (not that I’m obsessed with it) just looks bigger than it did in June. He said it’s nothing that a training camp and preseason play can’t shed and says he is in the process of hiring a chef to prepare healthy meals for him this season.

*Calvin Booth visited a chiropractor Wednesday afternoon about his bad back. He has watched all four practices because of spasms.

*Just FYI: The Wolves are televising preseason games for the first time in their history, I believe. You can catch two of them — Target Center contests against Chicago and Milwaukee on consecutive nights  on Oct. 22 and 23 — on FSN.

*Wittman praised his team’s “effort” and “enthusiasm” after Wednesday night’s practice, when the team did some full-court offensive stuff for the first time.  (This time, it was the point guard who looked good; Randy Foye shot the ball well from three-point range.) Witt said his guys have picked up the defensive concepts he has concentrated on through four workouts quicker than he anticipated and said the fellows did well offensively well once they possibly tired a bit and slowed down.

“We were going 100 miles an hour,” he said, “but that happens the first day.”

The Wolves opened training camp with a 2 1/2-hour workout this morning in Mankato in a collegiate building named after their owner (heck, he even has his own permanent parking-space sign outside) and the door that Kevin McHale and Jim Stack said had closed on Shaun Livingston Monday appeared to creak open just a little on Tuesday.

On Monday, both men said Livingston was going to sign with Miami, but the Heat have given no indication that’s going to happen. On Tuesday, as far as we know, Livingston remains unsigned.

“I don’t know, who knows?” McHale said when asked if the Wolves’ pursuit of the unrestricted free agent is over. “You’d think so, but he hasn’t signed anywhere.”

The Los Angeles Clippers, the team for which he played his first three seasons before missing all of last season with a severe knee injury, could still be in the running.

Meanwhile at Bresnan Arena at Taylor Center (that’s a mouthful), the Wolves worked mostly a defense, a point of emphasis expected to continue daily until the team returns to Minneapolis after Saturday night’s scrimmage.

“We might not look too good offensively those first two preseason games because we won’t have put too much in by then,” Wolves coach Randy Wittman said, referring to his offensive systems. “We’re going to stress defense this opening week of camp.”

Al Jefferson was on the floor early in practice but watched most of it either from an exercise bike or seated with an icebag on his injured knee. Newcomer Rodney Carney demonstrated a couple of explosive dunks (including one on a posterized Brian Cardinal) even though he said his legs still aren’t back to their springy selves after a summertime hamstring injury and rookie Kevin Love accomplished what he on Monday called his major objective for his first NBA practice.

He didn’t puke.

“Not yet anyway,” Wittman said, “although I see him standing over by the trash can.”

The Wolves practice again this evening.

The next-generation Timberwolves gathered together for the first time today at their Target Center facility to meet the media before they all hopped a Mankato-bound bus.

Shaun Livingston isn’t coming along for the ride. According to Kevin McHale and Jim Stack, their efforts to sign the former Los Angeles Clippers guard are over and they said he instead has chosen Miami, a signing that has been neither confirmed nor announced.

The Wolves instead will sign 11-year NBA veteran Kevin Ollie, who’s more a point guard than the combo guard the team seeks to back up Randy Foye and Sebastian Telfair. Ollie, 35, has played with 10 different NBA teams and spent the past three seasons with the 76ers. He started 23 games for Philly in both the 2005-2006 and 2006-2007 seasons and averaged 7.5 minutes to 40 games (no starts) last season.

The Wolves still will keep their eyes open for that elusive combo guard who can play three positions if they can find him. Meanwhile, they will take a gander at Ollie and summer-league team prospect Blake Ahearn.

Also, second-year forward Chris Richard signed  his one-year qualifying offer as expected and joined his teammates for a two-hour photo shoot and interview session. He wasn’t present for last year’s media day because he didn’t sign a one-year deal until the day practice began.

The Wolves open the first of two-a-day practices Tuesday at 10 a.m. in Mankato. Al Jefferson said he’s feeling “wonderful” after spraining a knee ligament, has begun running and will participate in non-contact action in Mankato. I’d expect he’d get back at it in practice for real sometime next week and might be ready to play perhaps sometime after the first couple of preseason games.

The Wolves continue to talk with unrestricted free agent Shaun Livingston about a contract, but it’s possible Livingston may continue to weigh his dwindling options — Portland says it has bowed out, Miami is smack up against the luxury tax –  after training camps open next week because his surgically repaired knee won’t be fully ready anyway.

Expect the Wolves, whether they sign Livingston or not, to bring former NBA lottery pick Rafael Araujo, Las Vegas Summer League team guard Blake Ahearn and probably one more guard to camp, which begins Tuesday in Mankato.

Wolves assistant general manager Rob Babcock made Araujo, the former 6-11 BYU center from Brazil, the eighth player taken in the 2004 draft when Babcock was the Raptors’ boss. The team traded him to Utah two years later in a deal that sent former Gopher Kris Humphries to Toronto. Araujo played in Russia last season and is an extra big body for two-a-days now that Al Jefferson and Jason Collins both start camp injured.

Ahearn is the kind of combo guy Kevin McHale and his staff want to add as a third guard behind Randy Foye and Sebastian Telfair. Livingston, taken fourth by the L.A. Clippers directly out of high school in 2004, would be an obvious upgrade, a guy whose 6-7 and might be able to play three different positions IF his knee fully recovers from a severe injury suffered in a game in February 2007.

But questions about that knee and likely his search for a chunk of guaranteed money have whittled his NBA suitors down apparently to a very few, the Wolves included. As with everything, it always comes down to money.

Also, Gophers radio color commentator Kevin Lynch, a former Gophers and NBA player, will replace Billy McKinney on the team’s radio broadcasts with play-by-play guy Alan Horton. Lynch had been the Gophers’ analyst since 2001. McKinney was hired in June by longtime friend John Hammond, Milwaukee’s new GM, to be the Bucks’ director of scouting. The team’s broadcasts return this season to KFAN-AM (1130).

Training camp’s first practice is less than five days away (media day just four days off) and as for a Shaun Livingston signing, well, the Wolves are mum so far (although I’m trying to get Jim Stack on the phone for an update) but I would guess no news so far is good news. He was looking for a good chunk of guaranteed money, but with Portland and Paul Allen apparently no longer interested, Livingston’s NBA options obviously are dwindling.

More certain is the Wolves signing another big body for training camp now that Al Jefferson and Jason Collins are out for the opening days (or weeks, in Collins’ case). Former Pacers center David Harrison worked out for Wolves brass Wednesday at Target Center, but he is seeking guaranteed money and likely won’t be signed.