Wally Szczerbiak rolled his eyes at the question out of exhaustion, not exasperation. As he answered it -- how glad were the Timberwolves to wrap up this stretch of eight games in 12 nights? -- the fatigue of the past two weeks seemed to wash over him, and the muscles of his smile were the only ones with any oomph left.

"You don't know," the Wolves' swingman said. "We were just talking about how happy we are. This was the toughest part of our schedule we're going to face all year. You could see it in our eyes -- we were just drained, mentally and physically."

The Wolves (18-8) still have plenty of hurdles left: Five road trips of three games or more, beginning Wednesday when they head to Denver, Sacramento and Portland. Eleven sets of back-to-backs. Three more games with the Lakers, just as many with the Spurs.

Still, they will not have to endure anything as rigorous as the just-completed stretch: Four sets of back-to-backs crammed together, each starting at Target Center, then sending them to Utah, Dallas, New Jersey and Chicago.