Minnesota Timberwolves

The Timberwolves' season is just 14 games old.

And summer is so far away.

Timberwolves basketball boss David Kahn made move after move last summer to position his team for next summer's free agency bonanza.

Until then, though, the players he has assembled for this season seemingly -- and metaphorically, of course -- walk the plank.

With injured Kevin Love probably three weeks away from making his season debut, the Timberwolves have lost 13 consecutive games. At 1-13 after Monday's 91-87 loss at the Los Angeles Clippers, they are starting to tread toward record territory.

The loss tied them for the franchise's worst start, 1-13 in the 1994-95 season.

The franchise's longest losing streak is 16 games, in 1991-92 and again in 1993-94.

Wolves coach Kurt Rambis was asked if losing's burden becomes too heavy as it approaches the record books.

"Not in my mind, no," he said. "We know the situation we're in. I don't think the players care. That's not something that enters their minds.

"That's something that definitely should not enter their minds. They have to just continue to be positive, continue to work on their individual skills, continue to learn how to play together.

"I just don't think you do all the things we did and expect a team to be successful. I don't believe that. The youth, the amount of changes we made, the imbalance in our roster, there's a purpose. We have a lot of cap space next year. That's the goal we have in mind."

It's certainly a roll of the dice on a future that right now looks anything but promising.

"We've got 70 games left, we don't want to think about records or what the losing record is," said forward Ryan Gomes. "We can only worry about the next game. If we lose that game, it's a one-game losing streak. That's how we've got to look at it."

Kahn was asked how management keeps players from feeling they've been asked to walk that proverbial plank until help presumably arrives next summer.

"They're not," Kahn said. "We should be really clear about that. We're not the only team in the league that starts this season admittedly with the playoffs not a likelihood, but we are one of the few teams that starts with an opportunity to really build something.

"I don't want them to think for one minute that what they're doing this year is an exercise in waiting or just finishing out a year and getting to the next step. This year is really important for establishing a new culture with hard work and attention to detail."

CLIPPERS 91, WOLVES 87: The Wolves led after each of the first three quarters and led by as many as eight points early in the third quarter, but lost for the 13th consecutive time after they went scoreless for more than five minutes and scored just 14 points in the fourth quarter.

They committed seven of their 21 turnovers in the fourth quarter. Included were four traveling violations, three by Al Jefferson.

The Wolves led 73-72 after three quarters, trailed 85-77 midway through the fourth and then got within a basket in the final minute.

But Jefferson traveled for the third and final time with 29 seconds left and Clippers guard Baron Davis scored his only points all night with a driving lay-up that secured victory with 8.5 seconds left.

Al Thornton, whom the Clippers selected seven slots after the Wolves drafted Corey Brewer seventh in 2007, led all scorers with 31 points. Jonny Flynn had 17 for the Wolves.

• Wolves coach Kurt Rambis stopped by the Lakers' training facility after practice Monday. The Clippers' media game notes said Rick Carlisle would speak outside the Wolves' locker room at 6:15 p.m. as part of the customary pregame coaches availability.

  Is there something we should know about?

  "I saw some of the guys, got to talk to Mitch and Phil and Jeanie," Rambis said, referring to general manager Mitch Kupchak, coach Phil Jackson and executive vice president Jeanie Buss. "What did you think I was doing there?"

  Rambis returned to Staples Center—where he worked for much of the last decade—for the second time in three weeks on Monday. But he won't face his former Lakers team for the first time until a Dec. 11 game there.

  "It'll be a different night when we play the Lakers because I'll get my championship ring that night," said Rambis, who will be the last to receive his now that Houston's Trevor Ariza already made his first visit to Staples. "I'll be coaching against the Lakers, a team that I was with for a long period of time, a coaching staff I was with for a long time. So it'll be a little different."

• The Wolves will play a late 8:30 p.m. home game Central time Friday against Phoenix, as previously scheduled. Except nobody but the relative few at Target Center will see it. The game was scheduled for a late start because it was supposed to be part of ESPN's doubleheader that night. Instead, ESPN scratched a team that started the season 1-13 and instead will show Oklahoma City-Milwaukee in a game that features budding Thunder superstar Kevin Durant and Bucks rookie sensation Brandon Jennings. Word that the game had been bumped from the national-television schedule was slow in reaching rookie guard Jonny Flynn.

  "That's the first time I heard about," he said. "It's all about TV, who people want to see play. That's … just how it is. That's just television."

Quote To Note:

"We have no pirates here."

—Wolves executive vice president of basketball operations David Kahn when asked how he keeps this season's players from feeling they're walking the plank this season while the team waits for the free agency bonanza next summer.

Rotation:

Starters—Power forward Ryan Hollins, Small forward Ryan Gomes, Center Al Jefferson, Shooting guard Corey Brewer, Point guard Jonny Flynn. Bench—Guard Ramon Sessions, Forward Oleksiy Pecherov, Guard Sasha Pavlovic, Forward Nathan Jawai, Forward Brian Cardinal, Guard Wayne Ellington.

Player Notes:

• F Al Jefferson's 13-point, 13-rebound game was his third consecutive double-double and his fourth in 12 games this season. But he also had eight of the team's 21 turnovers, three of them on traveling violations in the fourth quarter.

• G Jonny Flynn led the team in scoring for the seventh time in 14 games.

• G Wayne Ellington did not play for the second time in three games. He played just 3:46 in Saturday's game at Portland.

Medical Watch:

• F Kevin Love is expected to miss at least two more weeks because of a left hand fractured in a preseason game at Chicago on Oct. 16.