Jefferson has plan to match durability and strong finish http://www.startribune.com/sports/wolves/17372614.html The Timberwolves center is feeling the effects of his longest season. He intends to use the summer to reach a level of fitness that he feels could carry him to the playoffs. Al Jefferson and his teammates are nine days away from a long summer of rest, a fact that for now and for the Timberwolves star center's well-being is a very good thing. "I feel like if we were going to start the playoffs in two weeks, I'd have a mental breakdown," he said. "I have to do a better job this summer, getting my body in great shape, because I plan on getting into the playoffs real soon." Until this season, Jefferson never had played more than 71 games in an 82-game NBA season, and that was in his rookie year with Boston when he averaged 14.8 minutes a game. This time around, he has played in all 76 games so far, placing 36 minutes a game under his feet and a franchise upon his shoulders. His body, his mind, his demeanor and his statistics all recently have displayed the demands of approaching a goal that both Jefferson and Wolves coach Randy Wittman set for him. "Yeah," he said when asked about reaching all 82 games played, "I just haven't been talking about it because I don't want to jinx myself." If durability is an ingredient of greatness, then Wittman considers Jefferson's perfect attendance this season another step in the development of a young player in whom the franchise invested $65 million last fall. "To play 82 games, we had a guy here for a long time who did that," Wittman said, referring to Kevin Garnett. "The good ones do it a lot if they're lucky enough not to have injuries. He's striving to do that, but I think he's seeing what it takes to play 82 games." Jefferson has noticed the difference this season, when he has been asked to carry a team in a Western Conference with a style of play unlike what he knew for three seasons with Boston in the East. "That's kind of a slow game," he said, referring to the Eastern Conference. "In the West, it's run. I just need to get myself ready for the West and for the playoffs. I feel like if your body gets run down, your mind gets run down. The easy part for me is keeping my head together because of the love I have for the game. When you start having those aches and pains, when your body gets that wear and tear, that's where you can have a mental breakdown." Until mid-March, Jefferson collected a double-double game in points and rebounds seemingly every night. He had 49 double-doubles in his first 67 games this season. In the past nine, he has had two. Jefferson attributes the disparity not to fatigue or a determined effort he made just about then to improve his defense, but rather says his teammates have rebounded the ball better, which means he can do less. "Now I don't have to go out and grab 15, 16 rebounds," he said. "Some nights, it's nine. Some nights, it's seven. That's just a couple of rebounds off [double digits]. I don't care who gets 'em, as long as we start the fast break off." Wittman calls the decrease a combination of factors that include fatigue. "I think playing 82 games is showing him the kind of shape you have to be in," Wittman said. "You can talk about how hard it is to play 82 games, but you don't really know until you do it and have an understanding. You know what? We might need our top guys to play 82 games to get into the playoffs. It might take Al playing 82 games to get there. And the demands on Al are only going to get bigger, so I want him to experience what that is like." It is enough, Jefferson said, to convince him to work harder this summer. "This is my first year playing this many games, playing this many minutes," he said. "It's just something I'm going to improve on next year because I plan on being in the playoffs in a couple of years." -- 　　　　　　◣◣ ◢ 　 　　　 　▌◥ ◢◣ 　◣ ◤ＩＮＮＥＳＯＴＡ ◢◣ 　 ◢◣ ◢◤◣◢◣　◣ ◢ ◢◣ ◢◤◣ 　　 ◢◣ ◢ ◣◢◣◢◤◣◢ ◣ ▌◣▌ ◢◣◢ ◣ ◢◣ ◢ ◣ ◢◣ ▌ ＴＩＭＢＥＲ◣◥ ◤ＯＬＶＥＳ ψsunnyside --

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