MINNEAPOLIS -- It had been so long, Nikola Pekovic nearly forgot what it was like.
Instead of donning dress socks, he was asking the Timberwolves equipment staff for a pair of NBA-issued stockings with Jerry West's silhouette on them.
Instead of throwing on a shirt and mafia-style suit jacket, he was instructed to put on a red "NBA Fit" tee over a long-sleeve, dry-fit warmup shirt.
And instead of watching, for the first time since Nov. 15, Nikola Pekovic played in a basketball game.
"This is different feeling," Pekovic told reporters beforehand, smiling in front of his Target Center locker.
And after posting 14 points on 5-of-11 shooting and four rebounds in Wednesday night's 98-75 loss to Dallas, Pekovic hopes to experience it 41 more times during the season's latter half.
Pekovic's chronic injury issues make it easy to forget he played in 44 straight games last season, drawing All-Star consideration before a right ankle injury sidelined him for 28 of Minnesota's final 38 contests. Durability can be had, even by a guy who's missed at least 17 games in each of his five NBA seasons.
"As I've said many times," Pekovic said, "I'm a big person. With my style of playing, it's normal to get hurt. . . . I get contact every possession. Somebody hit me or I hit somebody. Just that last year happened, I got 40-something games with no injury or anything, that kind of give me some confidence I can do it the rest of the season."
That's the plan after an extensive, 9 1/2-week rehab process to take care of wrist and, more prominently, ankle issues. Doctors from the Mayo Clinic and the Wolves' training staff identified joint problems in Pekovic's beleaguered right ankle and told coach and president of basketball operations Flip Saunders there's little risk in playing Pekovic, even if it's a heavy-minutes load.
"We feel pretty confident that the Mayo Clinic and our medical people have done a great job identifying what his problem was," Saunders said before his team fell to 7-34 Wednesday night in front of 13,737 fans. "Right now, I think we'll be able to monitor it as we have been the last month or so after we found out exactly what it is."
But the Wolves said something similar during the first half of last year, when Pekovic was healthy for the longest stretch of his career and averaged 18.1 points and 9.1 rebounds per game.
A new training regimen designed to prevent wear and tear on his 6-foot-11, 290-pound frame helped for a while. But even before the All-Star break, he began breaking down. Again.
The pain lingered into the offseason, preventing Pekovic from getting much work in. Nine games into this season, the ankle flared up once more.
And so did the conversations about Pekovic, who earned a five-year max extension in the summer of 2013, being overpaid.
"This year, I went into the season, I had some issues, problems," said Pekovic, 29. "I was not 100 percent healthy. Last year, at the beginning of the season, I was like full ready. I didn't have any problems. . . . Last year, it started happening a little bit, a little bit, and then it kind of escalate into, like, major issue. Hopefully now I'll be able to finish the season, hopefully handle it and do it the right way, and then after we're going to see what's the best decision -- rest for some time to keep going through treatment and everything.
"That's my only thinking, to finish the season, from starting today to don't miss any games."
The Montenegrin behemoth looked like his old self Wednesday, save for coming off the bench behind Gorgui Dieng. The team will continue to limit Pekovic's minutes (22:53 Wednesday) till he fully regains his wind.
Pekovic's presence in the rotation Wednesday didn't help much against Dallas (29-13), the West's No. 5 team coming into the night. The Mavericks outshot Minnesota 51.3 percent to a season-low 34.8 percent from the floor behind 22 points from Chandler Parsons and 16 from Dirk Nowitzki. Eight more Dallas players scored five or more points.
The Wolves' 75 points were also a season low and their fewest in a game since Nov. 6, 2009.
"I was trying to help from a different standpoint," said Pekovic, who'd been out since Minnesota's first meeting with Dallas, a 131-117 loss Nov. 15 at the American Airlines Center. "Talking, do some more stuff inside. I wasn't really able to do everything I can do."
The Wolves are still awaiting the return of Ricky Rubio (ankle) and Kevin Martin (wrist) -- who was actually expected back before Pekovic -- from injury. Wednesday, they moved one step closer to becoming the "complete" team Saunders hopes to deploy down the stretch while continuing to develop Minnesota's young core.
"It was great" to have Pekovic back, said rookie Andrew Wiggins, who led the Wolves with 18 points. "He opens up a lot of space for everybody, makes plays with or without the ball. He's a big presence, big impact for us."
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