When the Timberwolves were devising ways to slow, or at least make life difficult, on Denver center Nikola Jokić in the Western Conference quarterfinals, they had a pretty good stand-in.

“It was a lot of fun for me, and I took it very seriously,” third-year pro Luka Garza said before Minnesota’s Game 2 against Dallas at Target Center on Friday night.

Garza isn’t a three-time NBA Most Valuable Player — he’s still trying to find regular playing time after being a second-round pick in the 2021 draft — and Jokic has almost 50 pounds on the former Iowa center. But they’re both bigs who can shoot and pass.

“I tried to give these guys the best looks I could and try to replicate the things he does,” said Garza, a 6-foot-10, 235-pound center who was a two-time Big Ten player of the year in Iowa City. “Obviously, it’s a guy I watch a ton of film on, so it was pretty easy for me to kind of know what he’s going to do.”

Garza, 25, is in his third NBA season and played in a career-low 25 regular-season games in his second season in Minnesota. But that was to be expected.

“I came into this year fully understanding what my role was,” he said. “It’s as an emergency guy behind three of the best bigs in the league.”

That would be 2023-24 NBA defensive player of the year Rudy Gobert, four-time all-star Karl-Anthony Towns and 2023-24 NBA sixth man of the year Naz Reid. It’s a formidable rotation and doesn’t leave a lot of minutes for Garza. That’s OK, especially as those three have racked up big minutes in the Timberwolves’ run into the Western Conference semifinals for the second time in franchise history.

The last time, Garza was 5.

“Obviously, I’m a basketball player, I want to be on the floor,” Garza said. “But I understand I can help this team in a lot of different ways — on the scout team, giving guys energy on the bench, whatever I can do.”

Garza got some good playing time late in Minnesota’s 45-point Game 6 victory over Denver at Target Center — eight points and two boards in 8 minutes of garbage time. Overall, he has played in six postseason games and scored 23 points in 23 minutes.

Maybe his biggest contribution so far, or at least his most enjoyable, was playing Jokić for the scout team. Like everything Garza has done since leaving college — he essentially mastered the NBA G League, averaging 36.7 points and 12.3 boards in 16 games — it also was a learning experience.

“It’s not often that guys are setting ball screens for me, and that’s what happened to me in practice. So, I’m getting to read the floor,” he said. “And obviously when you’re trying to replicate someone who’s as good a passer (as Jovic), you’re trying passes I normally would never throw.

“So, I think for me it continues to show how much I can do, and it gives me a lot of confidence moving forward that there’s a lot of room for me to grow within this game, and a lot of things I can do that, honestly, not many people know I can do.”

Garza could be playing big minutes in Europe — where three of his cousins play professional basketball — but he chooses to be in the NBA. “My dream was always to play in the NBA,” he said. And everything he does here, whether he’s playing in games or not, is progress.

“I feel the best I’ve ever felt athletically, so even if I’m not playing, it’s almost like I’m treating these workouts like the offseason in terms of how hard I’m going and trying to improve myself,” he said.

“I feel like there are a lot of elements to my game that I never had before. So, I’m excited to show it when that opportunity comes.”

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After nearly two months, Royce Lewis is finally getting his wish: he was cleared to play baseball on Friday.

It’s not at the major league level yet, but the third baseman showed the Twins’ trainers everything they needed to see to clear him for a rehab assignment. Lewis will begin rehabbing with the St. Paul Saints on Saturday in Buffalo, N.Y., serving as the team’s designated hitter.

“He ran the bases, kind of did the final thing on what the trainers were looking for as far as the intensity running the bases, running, stopping, starting, sliding, doing all those things,” bench coach Jayce Tingler said. “He’s extremely eager to get out and get going.”

That much has been abundantly clear since Lewis suffered a severe quadriceps strain running the bases on Opening Day.

Though it’s certainly not the longest injury recovery he’s been through, Lewis has described this as his most mentally challenging rehab process, primarily because there wasn’t a clear timeline for a return and he’s been feeling good for some time now.

“He’s been antsier than what I can remember in the in the past,” Tingler said. “He’s been charged up, ready to get out there. I think it’s a bit challenging because he wants to be out there so bad with the guys. … He feels like he’s in a great spot, the medical team feels he’s in a great spot, so now it’s about getting out there and just finding the rhythm and timing.”

Tingler didn’t want to venture a guess about how long Lewis might need to rehab, but he did note that Lewis seems to be the type of player who doesn’t really need a lot of at-bats to get his feel at the plate back. Last year, Lewis came straight off the injured list at the end of the season and hit two home runs in the first game of the Wild Card Series.

While Tingler said he doesn’t think it will take Lewis too long from the hitting standpoint, it’s important for him to gain strength and stamina in his legs and build up properly after almost two months away.

When he does return, it’s an instant boost for a Twins lineup that has been missing one of its best offensive weapons. Lewis had just two at-bats this season — a home run and a single — before suffering the injury.

“He’s a difference maker and a game changer. The fact that we will get him back soon is exciting,” shortstop Carlos Correa said. “Adding him to our lineup, it’s going to boost the lineup in a big way, so I’m excited for him to just go out there, take it day by day and go through his things, show everybody that he’s ready and then come back here and help us.”

Briefly

The Twins made a roster move on Friday, optioning reliever Caleb Boushley to Triple-A and bringing back Jorge Alcala. … Reliever Brock Stewart (shoulder) is continuing with plyo throws as he works his way back. … Chris Paddack will take the ball on Saturday for the Twins’ second game against the Texas Rangers.

With gun violence down in St. Paul, city and community leaders said Friday they’re going to continue the trend this summer with programs to keep young people learning, working and having fun.

Nonfatal shootings have dropped 64 percent so far this year, compared to the same time in 2021, and homicides have also decreased year-over-year.

St. Paul announced Project PEACE in July 2022, which is ongoing. The aim has been to reduce retaliation for street crime by connecting individuals and families impacted by gun violence with mental health support and other holistic intervention services. Part of the effort is the police department’s Operation ASPIRE, which has officers working on prevention, intervention and enforcement involving gun violence.

Brooke Blakey, director of St. Paul’s Office of Neighborhood Safety (ONS), said it’s important to talk about the positive work that’s being done, rather than only highlighting various organizations’ preventive work when a tragedy happens.

Public safety is the job of police, the fire department, Parks and Recreation, the libraries, ONS and community partners, said Mayor Melvin Carter at the kickoff gathering for what the city is calling “Safe Summer 2024.”

When Carter created ONS in 2022, the goal was balancing “investments in emergency response with an array of community-led strategies focused on addressing the root causes of crime,” he said. “Our neighbors know what our neighborhoods need best.”

Preliminary numbers show there were 29 nonfatal shootings in St. Paul as of Monday, compared to 49 during the same time last year, 76 in 2022 and 81 in 2021, according to the police department. There have been 10 homicides in St. Paul this year; there were 15 at this time last year.

Youth programming around St. Paul

Among the community members who talked about their work Friday was Natalia Davis of Take a Breath LLC. She’s hosted healing circles at several St. Paul recreation centers and elsewhere, where she teaches young people breathing techniques to manage grief and anxiety and deal with trauma.

This summer, she’ll be at Safe Summer Nights in St. Paul to teach breathing techniques to bring about calmness. Safe Summer Nights started in 2014, intended for St. Paul police and residents to get to know each other over a meal.

At the Black Youth Healing Arts Center at 643 Virginia St. in St. Paul, where Davis is artistic director, she said there will be free summer programming like yoga, gardening, sewing and Afro dance classes.

Johnny Allen Jr. is founder and executive director of the JK Movement, a nonprofit youth engagement organization that works out of the Jimmy Lee Rec Center. Their free summer programs include SAQ (Speed, Agility, Quickness) for middle and high school students; a digital art class for second and third graders; a Monday through Thursday, 4-7 p.m. program for middle and high schoolers; and career programs for young people about commercial real estate, construction, music and more.

There’s also St. Paul’s Right Track, where city residents who are 14 to 21 can get a summer job, Blakey said.

People can get more information through organization websites or social media, and there’s also outreach to get people signed up.

“They really do engage with community … for those individuals that are in that gap, that aren’t necessarily the ones who are going to go to a website, or the people we see in the neighborhoods who need opportunities,” said Blakey, who was at the White House on Wednesday with other people in the violence prevention field to further develop a national collaborative approach.

St. Paul’s ONS awarded $478,800 in gun violence prevention grants last year to community organizations — three have received funding and others are in the process of signing contracts. Another $400,000 is earmarked for grants this year and the application process is due to open soon, according to the city.

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The Northern Iron and Machine Foundry on St. Paul’s East Side has temporarily reduced its workforce by 15% — some 17 workers — in response to air quality restrictions imposed by the Minnesota Pollution Control Agency, according to an announcement Friday from the company.

Northern Iron notified the affected employees Friday that the change in their employment status will be effective immediately.

Located on Forest Street, the century-old foundry has been under pressure from the MPCA to better control emissions and upgrade its air quality controls through a formal permitting process.

The company was fined more than $41,000 last fall for making changes to air quality control equipment without an updated permit. In April, the MPCA issued an administrative order giving Northern Iron 30 days to bring operations into compliance with air quality standards. That deadline was May 17.

Modeled pollution data showed it was “highly likely the foundry exceeded the national air quality standards for lead and particulate matter,” reads a recent statement released by the MPCA. Calling air quality monitors installed by the MPCA near the foundry inconsistent in their readings, Northern Iron has maintained that “lead emission levels are well below the level considered safe by the Environmental Protection Agency.”

For particulate matter, “the data from the monitor does not have any correlation to the hours of operation of the facility and is inconsistent by day,” reads a statement issued by the company. “It does not appear to demonstrate that Northern Iron is out of compliance with particulate in the air.”

In late April, the company requested a stay to the administrative order, and the MPCA denied that stay on May 16, noting at the time that the facility could not demonstrate it had complied with the order.

Last week, Northern Iron filed a petition for review and an order for a temporary injunction against the MPCA in Ramsey County District Court.

The court this week ordered Northern Iron and the MPCA into mediation before a third party, which must be completed by May 31. Mediation is scheduled for next Thursday. The administrative order remains in place while legal action proceeds, according to the statement from the MPCA.

The company maintains it is being held liable for permitting issues dating back 15 years or more that occurred under previous ownership. The Lawton Standard companies of suburban Green Bay, Wis., acquired Northern Iron in 2022.

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