Wolves Casey draws line at hard competition No NBA player wants to be embarrassed. No NBA coach wants to see his team humiliated on its home court, with a blowout score turned into something more mocking. Then again, no NBA player or coach is likely to admit publicly that he would either a) rub an opponent's nose in it the way the Denver Nuggets are alleged to have done Saturday night in New York, or b) push back to the point of hard, even violent fouls the way the Knicks supposedly did in precipitating that ugly skirmish at Madison Square Garden. In penalties announced Monday by the league, seven players were suspended for a total of 47 games without pay -- Denver's Carmelo Anthony, who threw the most glaring punch, will miss 15 -- and the two teams will pay a combined $1 million in fines. How would the Timberwolves react, if they were on either side of that situation? Head coach Dwane Casey walked the question as if it were a tightrope. "It's a competitive game," Casey said. "Nobody likes to be shown up. You don't want it to escalate into a fight. But you hope that your players are competitive enough to compete back and play to the end of the game, no matter what the score is. You definitely don't want to get embarrassed. The key word is compete." Not fight. Casey declined to comment on specifics of the incident, sparked when New York's Mardy Collins grabbed Denver's J.R. Smith around the neck for a flagrant foul with 75 seconds left in what became the Nuggets' 123-100 victory. Smith reacted angrily, then wrestled with Knicks guard Nate Robinson in a scrum that spilled into the front row. Moments later, Anthony slugged Collins, reigniting the skirmish. Ten players were ejected. Neither coach was penalized, but both had doubters: Denver's George Karl had veterans Anthony and Marcus Camby on the floor late in a lopsided game, reportedly to punish New York's Isiah Thomas for his firing of Karl pal Larry Brown this summer. And Thomas was accused of warning Anthony that he could be fouled hard if he ventured near the basket late in the blowout. Casey's take? "I'm not fearing the other team. I'd be more fearful of injury," the Wolves coach said. "The game is over. I would want to save my players from time on their legs and injuries." Forward Mark Madsen, who has given and taken hard fouls, talked about an unwritten rule that starters sit and reserves play as hard as they can late in lopsided games. "I don't know why those [Denver] guys were on the court at the time," Madsen said. "But at the same time, it's not my place to try to get inside the defender's psyche to find out why that would happen." Madsen said he could relate to Collins, a rookie trying to impress a coach who values toughness. He also said he could relate to Smith, who had a flashy dunk not long before his final breakaway. "Guys are showmen," he said. "You might not like it. You might want to pay them back. But you pay them back [next time] with basketball, not fighting." Madsen on mend Madsen practiced Monday, then went through extra ball drills afterward. But Casey said he likely wouldn't decide until Wednesday whether the backup forward would face the Lakers. Defensively blurry Scoring 104 points on the Bucks on Saturday was no biggie; that is Milwaukee's defensive average. But giving up 108 was a bad night for the Wolves, who had been giving up just 92.5 in 20 previous games. "We didn't come into the game with the defensive mentality that we've had the entire year," Casey said. "We were gambling, taking ourselves out of plays, doing stuff out of character. I'm not saying we weren't aggressive. But with that, we have to be disciplined." Who loves ya? A recent ESPN.com poll asked the question: Which team needs Philadelphia guard Allen Iverson more? Of the 68,150 respondents, 61 percent picked the Wolves. Miami, with 15 percent, was second. 原文：http://www.startribune.com/511/story/884251.html --

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