Mike Miller injured his ankle midway through Monday’s practice and did not finish. His condition will be re-evaluated today but, considering Randy Wittman rested him Friday and he played just nine minutes, it’s quite possible the Wolves hold him out tonight in Chicago just as a precaution.

Rashad McCants practiced fully after hyperextending his elbow Friday in Denver, but he is expected to play. So, too, is Craig Smith, who missed the last two games because of swelling in his surgically repaired knee.

Smith said he will wear a compression sleeve on his knee and also will ice it when he flies. It swelled on the flight to Montana last week, the day after the team opened its preseason play at Milwaukee.

Also, it looks like the NBA soon might announce a season-opening suspension for Sebastian Telfair for an April 2007 arrest while he was with Boston. He was sentenced last month to three years’ probation for misdemeanor possession of a loaded handgun, speeding and driving without a license. The New York Daily News reported he is expected to be suspended for a minimum of two games to start the season.

So why now? Because his legal case was resolved just last month and the league waited until then before imposing a suspension the Daily News called “automatic.” Both Telfair and Wittman said they are unaware of a forthcoming suspension.

The headline about says it all: Rafael Araujo, the former lottery pick whom the Wolves signed as a free-agent center last month, was released today. That brings the team’s roster to 18 with five preseason games — including contests at Chicago and Toronto this week — remaining. The Wolves signing of David Harrison on Thursday pretty much told the writing on the wall for the Brazilian who was the eight player selected in the 2004 NBA draft.

Also on Sunday, Rashad McCants didn’t practice because he still had some fluid on the elbow he slightly hyperextended in Friday’s loss at Denver. Forward Craig Smith did.  Randy Wittman called McCants’ condition”day-to-day” and said he wasn’t certain if McCants would play Tuesday in Chicago. Smith is expected to be ready after missing two games because his surgically repaired knee swelled on a flight to Montana.

Calvin Booth participated in a full practice, but David Harrison, Brian Cardinal and Jason Collins remain out.

You should probably hope it was just dead legs and preseason fatigue that left the Wolves looking so lethargic in Friday’s runaway loss to the Nuggets. After all, it was their 11th consecutive day of work since training camp started; they’ll get a day off today, their first since the first morning of camp on Sept. 30.

The Nuggets played their preseason opener and were without injured star Carmelo Anthony.

The Wolves were just about out-everythinged from right from the start, and trailed by eight late in the first quarter, by 24 late in the second and by 25 in the third. Randy Wittman gave the first glimpse of the future by starting Kevin Love and Al Jefferson together for the first time and it was a tough, tough night for the rookie, despite his 10-point, 11-rebound, 5-turnover night.

Kenyon Martin absolutely abused him in the first quarter, scoring eight points in the first seven minutes. J. R. Martin told him to get that outlet-pass stuff out of here by picking a long one off intended for Mike Miller. And then, to top it all off, Love got smacked in the mouth in the fourth quarter but stayed in the game.

Afterward, Wittman said both Jefferson, coming back from that knee injury, and Love need to get in better shape.

Other thoughts, observations and tidbits:

Another sloppy night, with 19 turnovers. That follows 21 committed Monday in Milwaukee and 25 Wednesday against Oklahoma City. Love had five, Blake Ahearn had three in 23 minutes, four other players had two each.

When was the last time you saw this?: Corey Brewer clapping his hands and demanding the ball behind the three-point line. Never as a Wolf, that’s for sure. With his team down big in the second half, Brewer started firing and his confidence practically oozed. He made four of five three-point attempts and scored 18. In the three preseason games, he has made five threes, or two fewer than he made all last season. Guess what was the first word he used after the game: You got it, confidence.

Rashad McCants played just four minutes after hyperextending his elbow. No immediate word on how serious, or not, the injury is.

Craig Smith didn’t play for the second consecutive game because there’s still some swelling in that surgically repaired knee and it was deemed best to give him a couple days to recover.

Wittman wanted to rest Mike Miller and so the vet played fewer than 10 minutes.

Instead of Miller starting, Wittman started point guards Sebastian Telfair and Randy Foye against the Nuggets’ smallish backcourt of A.I. and Anthony Carter.  The two started 10 games together last season before Telfair suffered a season-ending ankle injury in March. Telfair had three steals, five assists, one turnover in nearly 33 minutes. Hard to tell how they looked together because the game got out of hand so quickly.

Calvin Booth, Brian Cardinal and, of course, Jason Collins are still out with injuries.

New Timberwolf David Harrison admits this might be his last chance to “resurrect” his career. When asked what he needs to prove now at age 26, the guy who was suspended by the NBA for five games last season for violating its anti-drug policy said, “That I’m not a pothead, I guess.”

He was quite candid in a conversation on Thursday. You can see his comments in Saturday’s paper

http://www.startribune.com/sports/wolves/30825394.html?elr=KArksi8cyaiUo8cyaiUiD3aPc:_Yyc:aULPQL7PQLanchO7DiU

Free-agent center David Harrison signed his one-year, non-guaranteed contract after practice on Thursday at the Nuggets’ Pepsi Center training facility, but does not know when he’ll be able to get on the floor to practice fully with his new teammates because of a strained calf sustained when he worked out for team officials at Target Center last month.

I’ll bet the Wolves give Harrison a good long look, which means I’m guessing he sticks with the team into the regular season for sure. Randy Wittman said he envisions Harrison playing well with Al Jefferson if opponents defend Jefferson with their centers, thus putting a smaller player against Harrison, who instantly and easily became the Wolves’ biggest player when he signed, in the post.

Craig Smith practiced Thursday after the swelling in his knee subsided. He missed Wednesday’s uneven victory over Oklahoma City after the knee swelled on the flight from Minneapolis to Billings. Also, Jason Collins rejoined the team in Denver after visiting his doctor in California to get his healing elbow checked.

As for Friday’s night game against A.I., ‘Melo and the Nuggets, Wittman said he hopes to get a good look at Randy Foye and Sebastian Telfair playing together against Denver’s smallish backcourt. Telfair and Marko Jaric played well together before Telfair injured his ankle in March and Foye and Jaric played well together some, too, after Telfair went out. Two ballhandlers are better than one apparently.

Dominant at times, disinterested and disorganized at others, the Wolves rescued themselves with a preseason fourth quarter Wednesday night that Randy Wittman suggested they would have been incapable of last season.

A team that hoisted 24 threes and made seven of them two nights after they shot 58 percent from the field in that Milwaukee romp, the Wolves’ three-point indiscretion left Wittman cursing under his breath. But it was consecutive threes by Rodney Carney and Ryan Gomes busted open a tied game with 3:04 and turned a game in which the Wolves led by 13 in the second quarter and trailed by nine early in the fourth.

More notable, though, was this: The Wolves, so far outdistanced last season in free-throw disparity, reached the free-throw penalty bonus with 5:10 left, when they trailed by three. The Thunder never made it into the bonus. The result: The Wolves made 9 of 10 in the fourth, including 5 of 6, in that final 5:10 while the Thunder went 0-for-1.

Rashad McCants scored 13 of his team-high 15 points in that fourth after dribbling the ball all over the place into trouble and getting into foul trouble that fouled him out late with his indiscretion, and was 6-for-6 from the line in the fourth. (8-for-8 for the game while going 3-for-10 from the field).

“We can get to the foul line this year,” Randy Foye said.

Other thoughts and observations:

Rodney Carney played 26 minutes and showed what we know he can do: Run and dunk (he also had a nice double-clutch baseline layup). But he made his only three of the night (he missed three other tries) when it counted most, when Sebastian Telfair found him all alone in the corner with the shot clock running down with 3:04 left. He is intrguing, but he and Corey Brewer seem awfully similar: Great athletes in the open floor, great hops, inconsistent shooter.

Kevin Love matched up against Johan Petro and Nick Collison, among others, and the first two preseason games showed he’s going to get outreached and outjumped under the basket. But he also has held his own through sheer scrappiness. He had eight of his 10 points in the 4:36 he played in the first quarter and played 27:37 total.

Wittman played nine guys (compared to all 15 in the Milwaukee blowout), all of them 19 minutes or more except for Chris Richard’s seven minutes. No Ahearn, no Ollie, no Araujo (no Craig Smith, either, because of his swollen knee, which was detailed in my pregame post).

The Wolves will sign free agent center David Harrison, the former Indiana Pacer, in Denver Thursday or Friday, to a non-guaranteed contract. It’s a low-risk move for a 7-footer who was suspended for five games last season for violating the NBA’s anti-drug policy.  The Wolves worked him out at Target Center last month, but it was abbreviated when he injured his calf midway through. They need another big body because Jason Collins and Calvin Booth are injured and it looks like Araujo might end up taking a guaranteed deal in Europe. He won’t undergo his team physical until Monday, so that means he can’t practice with the team until then.

Technically, the Timberwolves-Oklahoma City game tonight in Billings, Mont., is a Wolves’ home game, although the flies and the dust still swirl at Rimrock Auto Arena from the last stock show that was in town.

Craig Smith is not expected to play tonight because his knee that underwent surgery in August swelled on the flight from Minneapolis Tuesday night. He is getting treatment this afternoon and is a game-time decision.

There was a Calvin Booth sighting this morning. The big fellow who has missed all of the preseason so far worked out for the first time with his new teammates in a session that was all non contact.

Meanwhile, Brian Cardinal remains out because of a calf injury and Jason Collins was away in California on Tuesday and Wednesday to see his doctor about his elbow, which is recovering from surgery last month.

Randy Wittman plans to play Rodney Carney tonight more than he did in Monday’s runaway victory in Milwaukee and he hopes to continue to look at different combinations of players. He wants to see Randy Foye and Sebastian Telfair together, but said that might not come until Friday’s game at Denver.

Wolves rookie Kevin Love’s famed full-court practice shots — real and available to be seen all over youtube.com — makes him a credible candidate for a Topps Trading Card video shoot in which Love proves himself to be the “King of the Trick Shots.”

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1GFGPqdpEAk

Shot in New York in August, he “makes” four successive three-point shots by bouncing one off the court and into the basket, throwing one backward over his head and tossing another in from behind his back. He also makes like Dutch Clark and drop-kicks one in.

The rest of the story will be in my preview of Wednesday’s game against Oklahoma City in Billings, Mont., in tomorrow’s paper.

Until then, I ask: Take away the 16:9 aspect wide screen and who do you like in a game of H-O-R-S-E? Mike Miller or Kevin Love?

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.