Michael Beasley has deactivated his Twitter page one night after retweeting a post that wished Kurt Rambis would let Beasley "play his game".

Rambis said before Friday's game that he hadn't heard about Beasley's posting.

Beasley told Minnesota's media relations staff that he retweeted the post accidentally from his cell phone.

Beasley said after the game that Rambis hasn't restricted his freedom.

"Kurt has given me all the opportunity in the world to grow as a player, as a leader. I really don't have anything against Kurt and my game."

Mavericks coach Rick Carlisle does not expect to have a set rotation when the playoffs begin in a few weeks.

“I think we know who our nine or 10 main guys are. With the value of the guys and the depth of our roster I don’t see us getting to an eight-man rotation or anything like that. I think we’re going to be playing nine guys with the other few guys stepping in and playing.’’

Carlisle already juggled the starting lineup on Thursday against Minnesota when he started Shawn Marion at small forward ahead of Peja Stojakovic. Carlisle explained that it is because Marion matches up better against Michael Beasley than Stojakovic.

Ever since the season-ending knee injury to Caron Butler, several players have been in and out of the starting lineup at small forward. Carlisle's top two players at that position are Marion and Stojakovic, and matchups will decide which one starts.

Minnesota Timberwolves coach Kurt Rambis says there’s a chance that All-Star forward Kevin Love could miss the rest of the season because of a strained left groin.

Love sat out Thursday night’s game against Dallas after he was hurt in a 127-95 home loss to Sacramento on Sunday.The Timberwolves have 10 games left after playing the Mavericks.

“There is an outside chance, I don’t know how great that chance is,” Rambis said. “Obviously, with hamstring or groin injuries, you want to be cautious with them because they can linger for a long period of time, and we don’t want that to happen with Kevin.”

Minnesota forward Kevin Love will not make the team's upcoming two-game road trip because of an injured left groin.

Love was injured last week in a game at Utah. He played through the pain against the Lakers, but it became worse in the second quarter of a loss to the Kings on Sunday.

Anthony Randolph is expected to start in Love's place against the Mavericks Thursday night.

Kevin Love has played 69 games this season.

In 63 of those games, he's recorded a double-double, including a record streak of 53 straight that ended Sunday, but not before he passed Moses Malone's previous mark of 51.

Love has played the Lakers three times this season, and he recorded a double-double in only two of those games.

On November 19, Love played his worst game of the season, finishing with zero points and seven rebounds in a 112-95 loss to the Lakers, and he barely kept his double-double streak alive in early March when he went 2-for-10 from the field against L.A. en route to 13 points and 11 rebounds in a 90-79 loss.

"Some of it's familiarity," said Lakers coach Phil Jackson after practice Thursday when asked to explain L.A.'s success against Love. "Lamar [Odom] played against him all summer and I'm sure they had many scrimmages against one another, so I'm sure he has a little bit of feel for him as a player."

Little by little, Derrick Favors is growing into what is expected from the third pick of the 2011 NBA Draft. Acquired by Utah from New Jersey in the Deron Williams trade, Favors started for the second straight game and played a positive role in the Jazz's 119-104 defeat of Minnesota Wednesday.

On a night where C.J. Miles blew up the scoreboard for 40 points, Favors did the little things on the way to 13 points and five rebounds in 24 minutes.

“I’m just getting used to the system,” said Favors, still nursing a calf bruise he picked up while with New Jersey. “Every day after practice coach keeps me and some of the other guys, about a half hour or so working on plays."

Favors had a monster slam dunk over Minnesota's Darko Milicic midway through the third period.  But it was his effort against the Wolves’ Kevin Love that caught the attention of Jazz coaches. Love finished with 22 points and 11 rebounds, but nothing came easy.

“Favors is a young guy … a bigger body,” Utah coach Ty Corbin said. “He rebounds after contact, he can finish with the ball and score a little bit in the lane. He’s still learning the system and he’s not really, really comfortable yet. He’s getting better.”

Ricky Rubio said on Tuesday that a lockout would be an "important" factor in making his decision on whether to come to the NBA for the 11-12 season, although Rubio could choose to sign with the Wolves this spring before the league's current collective bargaining agreement expires rather than risk terms of a new deal.

If he decided to leave for the NBA, he said that after his season is over he'll talk to his current club "and the NBA club, which right now is Minnesota."

"The sooner he gets over here, the quicker he's going to adapt and the better he's going to get," Kevin Love said. "He has had a lot of hype surrounding him. It'll mean a lot for the fans. It'll make the game more exciting. By the way he was talking about it, he does want to come over here and I do think he'll play for our team.

"If not, it'll be tough. I would love to play with him. I think he will come over and play here. I definitely think he'll play here."

The day after Kevin Love's double-double streak ended at 53 games, Love laughingly told everybody not to weep for him.

"With the way people were texting me last night, you would have thought a family member died," he said after practice on Monday. "They were like, 'So sorry, if you need to talk to anybody...' I was like, what are they talking about? I feel great. I'm in great spirits."

Love's streak ended Sunday night at Golden State with a six-point, 12 rebound game. That was his first game without double-digit numbers in both categories since Nov. 19. It's the longest such streak since the NBA/CBA merger in 1976. 

"That's a long time ago," he said. "It's going to be interesting to see whether in five, 10, 20 years from now, anybody will contend with that or not. We'll see."

NBA referee Bill Spooner has filed suit against the Asssociated Press' Timberwolves reporter who tweeted that the ref promised points to head coach Kurt Rambis after making a bad call.

AP writer Jon Krawczynski posted a message on Twitter during the Wolves game against the Rockets on January 24. 

The tweet said, "Ref Bill Spooner told Rambis he'd 'get it back' after a bad call.  Then he made an even worse call on the Rockets.  That's NBA officiating folks."

Spooner called the tweet a defamatory accusation of game fixing, and said that both the reporter and the AP have refused to retract it.  His suit seeks more than $75,000 in damages, the tweet to be unpublished and a retraction of the statement.

David Kahn denied a report that Kurt Rambis will be fired after the season is over and replaced by current Bucks' assistant coach Kelvin Sampson.

"The notion of Kelvin Sampson is completely false," Kahn said, relaying his comments through Wolves media relations director Mike Cristaldi. "That report is not true in all aspects."

Rambis said he heard of the report but had not read it and dismissed the prediction of his imminent firing because of the use of unnamed sources.

"I don't comment on things I haven't read, and I never comment on things that cowards say," Rambis said before heading to the team's charter flight to Oakland. "If somebody wants to say something and attach their name to it, that's another matter. Rumors are out there all the time. Anybody can start a rumor, but if they don't attach their name to it, they're a coward."