MINNEAPOLIS -- Life on the Continental Basketball Association road came with its fair share of shoddy accommodations, the likes of which Flip Saunders hasn't forgotten.
So it didn't take the Timberwolves coach and president long to come up with a moniker for the octet of healthy players at his disposal the past two games, the result of another string of injuries in an already attrition-rocked, lost season.
"We're just like the hotel, the Super 8," said Saunders, who coached in the CBA from 1988-95 before joining Minnesota as general manager and later coaching it to eight straight playoff appearances.
For the second night in a row, Zach LaVine, Andrew Wiggins, Kevin Martin, Adreian Payne, Gorgui Dieng, Justin Hamilton, Chase Budinger and Lorenzo Brown -- eight guys, get it? -- were the only players active in the Wolves' 122-106 home loss to Brooklyn. Ricky Rubio, Kevin Garnett, Gary Neal and Nikola Pekovic were all game-time decisions, and all four sat with various aching appendages.
Shabazz Muhammad, meanwhile, is done for the season with a ruptured finger ligament. Anthony Bennett remains out with a sprained ankle. Robbie Hummel's injured hand is progressing, but he had a suit jacket on Monday night at the Target Center, too.
It's not getting ridiculous. It's been that way since about a month into the season.
"We've just got to grind through it," Wiggins said. "It happens."
The Wolves' disadvantage was apparent in front of 14,234 fans Monday night -- especially in the paint, where Brooklyn scored a franchise-record 78 points. That's two off the most-ever allowed by Minnesota and 12 less than the all-time NBA record (since the league began keeping the stat in 2000) set by Denver on Jan. 25, 2012.
"Just from the start," said Nets forward Thaddeus Young, who scored 19 points in his first game since the Wolves traded him to Brooklyn for Garnett at last month's deadline, "we wanted to impose our will in the game."
Said Budinger: "You aren't going to win any games (giving up) that many points in the paint. That's unbelievable."
Joe Johnson (22 points) and rookie Bojan Bogdanovic (21) led the way for Brooklyn as the Nets continue to claw at an Eastern Conference playoff spot.
Martin had 23 and a season-high six assists for Minnesota (14-52), which remains in last place in the Western Conference.
"It's men against boys right now," Saunders said after his club's sixth straight loss by double digits. "It's a man's league. At some point, you've got to stand your ground."
Rubio, who sprained his ankle five games into the season and was sidelined almost three months, missed his second game in a row. Saunders expects him to play Wednesday at Toronto, though, and said Rubio merely tweaked the same ankle two games ago at Oklahoma City.
Garnett's situation initially looked just as minor. Saunders said he was resting the 38-year-old in the first two games of Minnesota's four-game road trip, but he didn't play at all during the excursion because a sore left knee kept him out.
Garnett received a second opinion on his knee Monday evening. Saunders didn't have any updated information after the game.
Pekovic and Neal are day-to-day with sore right ankles. Pekovic has missed 34 games this season, while Neal -- acquired from Charlotte last month in the Mo Williams trade -- re-aggravated a practice injury suffered shortly after his arrival.
Bennett missed his 12th game since Phoenix's Markieff Morris rolled up on Bennett's right ankle Feb. 20. Hummel hasn't played since Jan. 25 after breaking a bone in his hand at Atlanta.
"It's just an unfortunate thing that, especially with our team, has been happening," LaVine said. "It's basketball. It's pride. So it's easy to compete with somebody. You want to beat them and be better than them."
From a pure numbers perspective, it's even worse than when Rubio, Pekovic and Martin were out with injuries from mid-November till the calendar turned to January. A team starting over after trading away Kevin Love last summer wasn't expected to make a postseason push, but players believed internally they could "shock" observers, as Martin put it, before three starters went down within 10 days of each other.
That caused Saunders to flip every lever to "reset," trading away Williams, Young and Corey Brewer in hopes of building for the future. After Monday's loss, Minnesota has the second-worst record in the league and would be the NBA Draft Lottery's No. 2 seed if the ping pong balls were drawn tomorrow.
It was the Wolves' soured outlook that prompted Young to tell their front office he planned to opt out of his contract after the season, precipitating the trade that brought Garnett back to Minnesota.
But between scheduled rest and his bad knee, Da Kid has played in just five of the Wolves' 13 games since the deal -- all home contests.
But what's really concerning, Saunders said, is the domino effect such rampant injuries can create. Fewer bodies means more minutes for those who are healthy, which can lead to more wear and tear. It also makes for practices where not much can be accomplished other than individual drill work and conditioning.
In 2014-15, much of the load has fallen upon Wiggins. The odds-on rookie of the year favorite ranks second in the NBA in minutes played since Dec. 1 (36.9 minutes per game).
"The thing you worry about is that Wiggins and these guys that have put in so many minutes that they don't get broken down," Saunders said. "When you have injuries, other guys, they get broke down, because they have to play more minutes than they're used to playing."
For every DNP, though, there's an open door somewhere else.
LaVine has played a gargantuan amount of minutes at point guard, including all 30 of his Monday night. The 20-year-old from UCLA started off hot, hitting 3 of 4 3-pointers in the first quarter for nine points, and finished with 20 but drew the ire of the coaching staff for committing six turnovers.
Big man Justin Hamilton had 15 points and six rebounds in another strong showing since being claimed off waivers March 5. In five games since then, he's averaging 12 points and six boards in 28.2 minutes per game.
Budinger scored 17 points on 8-of-10 shooting (2 for 3) from 3-point range. Brown played 17 minutes but went 0 for 5 from the field with five assists and five rebounds.
Hamilton, Budinger and Brown were Minnesota's only active reserves Monday night.
"It's been hard for me. How about me? It's not about the players, right?" Saunders joked before his team's ninth loss in its past 10 outings. "No, they came in today and they were in good spirits. Young guys, I look at this way: guys are out there getting opportunities they normally might not get.
"That's how you have to present it to them."
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