One of the best stories of the first half of the season was the emergence of Nikola Pekovic as the Minnesota Timberwolves' starting center. The bruising 26-year-old Montenegrin has been a revelation for coach Rick Adelman, overpowering opponents down low, beasting on the offensive boards and pairing with All-Star power forward Kevin Love to give the resurgent Wolves a frontcourt pairing capable of battling even the best out West. Of course, for every rising star, there's also a setting sun. In this case, it's gotten pretty dark for former Minnesota starter Darko Milicic, whose injury earlier this season opened the door for Pekovic to play Wally Pipp, and who has been all but cast aside since Pekovic's arrival on the NBA scene. In theory, then, Pekovic's recent foot and ankle injuries — which led to him being sent back to Minnesota for treatment on Wednesday, meaning he'll miss the last two games of the Wolves' road trip — could have offered a nice bit of duality for Darko, a chance to prove turnabout's fair play by providing some fair play of his own. It didn't work out that way, though. After not playing for eight days, receiving DNP-CDs against the New Orleans Hornets, Utah Jazz and the Los Angeles Lakers and being removed from the active roster against the Phoenix Suns, Milicic returned to the mix following Pekovic's injury. It was an inauspicious return; he played just six "disappointing" minutes in Sunday's loss to the Sacramento Kings, then went right back on the inactive list for the Wolves' Monday night win over the Golden State Warriors. When Minnesota rolled into Texas on Wednesday to take on the Southwest Division-leading San Antonio Spurs, Darko "remained on the sideline and out of favor" with Adelman, according to Jerry Zgoda of the Minneapolis Star-Tribune : "He hasn't done anything to really give you a lot of faith that he's going to go out and do the job," Adelman said of Milicic. "He's gotten himself out of shape. He hasn't been as driven as you'd like so when a situation like this happens, it's time for someone to have their opportunity and get back in there. Today, [Derrick Williams] going to get his chance and Anthony Randolph is going to get his chance and we'll see if any of those guys can step up." The numbers, not surprisingly, support Adelman's assessment.
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