Wolves Talk to Spurs’ Aide

San Antonio Spur assistant P.J. Carlesimo interviewed for the Minnesota Timberwolves’ coaching job during a break in the Western Conference finals.

Timberwolves’ owner Glen Taylor said he received permission from the Spurs to speak to Carlesimo on Friday, an off day for the Spurs in their series against Phoenix.

“They had a couple of days off between games and we had asked for authorization,” Taylor said. “So we flew down and it went well.”

Taylor said he still has a few candidates he wants to interview before deciding on a successor to Kevin McHale.

McHale, also the team’s vice president of basketball operations, fired Flip Saunders in February and coached the team for the rest of the season. He is staying as an executive.

Carlesimo has been a head coach at Portland and Golden State. If he were hired by Minnesota, Latrell Sprewell’s contentious run in Minnesota almost surely would end.

Sprewell played under Carlesimo at Golden State and choked Carlesimo during a practice in 1997, prompting a national debate on the conduct of athletes.

Taylor said he has interviewed about 10 people for the job, including Timberwolves’ assistants Sidney Lowe, Randy Wittman and Jerry Sichting.

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After all they’ve accomplished this season, the Phoenix Suns are taking an incredibly humble goal into what could be their 2004-05 finale.

They want to win the first quarter.

Don’t laugh. The Suns have been way behind going into the second quarter of every game and they consider that a big reason why they trail the Spurs, 3-0, in the Western Conference finals heading into Game 4 tonight at San Antonio.

“Play a little harder in the first quarter -- I think that’s the only thing we can do,” center Amare Stoudemire said Sunday. “We’ve got to do a better job of coming out strong. We’ve got to retaliate sooner or later.”

How bad have those early jitters been?

* The Suns have trailed by 10, 13 and 11 points during the first quarters.

* They’ve finished those quarters down by 10, 10 and nine points, continuing a trend that began in the last round against Dallas. They’ve “lost” eight straight first quarters.

* They did have a first-quarter lead this series. Once. They were up 14-12 for all of 1 minute, 2 seconds in the opener. The best they’ve done since was tying it 2-2 each of the last two games.

No wonder Coach Mike D’Antoni said with exasperation, “We just want to get to the second quarter and see what happens.”