Wolves' Saunders doesn't expect warm welcome for Love's return

While the Miami Heat will honor LeBron James on Christmas Day and the team is expecting a warm embrace to their returning star, it's not going to be a week of happy homecomings for the Cleveland Cavaliers.

Before they spend Christmas in South Beach, the Cavaliers will venture north for Kevin Love's return to Minnesota. Timberwolves head coach and president Flip Saunders isn't expecting Love to be fitted with good tidings on Tuesday.

"Minnesota people are pretty loyal," Saunders said. "When you turn on Minnesota, they don't forgive you."

In other words, it would take a Festivus miracle for Love to get the reception that's expected for James, either Tuesday or when he returns to Minneapolis.

As a reminder, Love more or less asked his way out of Minnesota this offseason, leveraging his status as an impending unrestricted free agent. Rather than losing him for nothing, the Wolves instead flipped him to Cleveland for Andrew Wiggins, Anthony Bennett and, thanks to the involvement of a third team, Thad Young. Even with the future bright, the 5-21 Wolves may not be forgiving for the time being.