The Lakers Are Left Howling in Disbelief

Micheal Williams, full-time point guard and part-time prognosticator, swore he had seen this one coming. The Lakers never could have, not playing at home, not with a four-game winning streak and not playing a team they had defeated eight days earlier.

Score one for Williams. A big one--a three-point play with 1.1 seconds to play that gave the Minnesota Timberwolves a 101-99 victory before 11,256 at the Forum on Sunday night.

The Lakers had a 99-98 lead after Doug Christie’s leaning shot from the free-throw line with 26 seconds to play and a chance to win five in a row for the first time since the end of the 1991-92 season. And when Minnesota’s Doug West missed a 10-footer with about seven seconds to go, leaving Elden Campbell and Anthony Peeler to go for the rebound, they still seemed in good shape.

But when both Lakers grabbed for the ball, it went off Peeler, giving the Timberwolves the only opportunity they would need. After calling a timeout, Chuck Person, standing along the baseline to the right of the basket, found no one was protecting the left side of the lane against a pass and he found a wide-open Williams, who made the layup as Sedale Threatt crashed into his back.

“The rebound was the game,” Laker Coach Randy Pfund said. “We had it in our hands, and it got away. It never should have gotten to that.”

But when it did get to that, to Williams getting so wide open even he was surprised, he didn’t miss the chance. The basket put the Timberwolves ahead by a point and the subsequent free throw made it a two-point margin.

Exactly as he had predicted.

“When I walked out (after the timeout), I said, ‘I’m going to get the basket and get fouled,’ ” Williams said of the last of his 21 points. “I told Chuck in the huddle, watch me slip into the open.”

The winning play came after the same timeout during which Pfund told the Lakers to protect the inside and make the Timberwolves beat them from the outside.

“It just proves that talk is cheap,” he said.

Instead, when Threatt saw Christian Laettner get open near the basket, he leaned in that direction. But when the ball went to Williams instead, Threatt was too far away to recover.

“I caught myself looking at Laettner,” Threatt said after the Lakers dropped to 7-10 despite tying a team record by committing only six turnovers. “Then, boom. “

But it had started well for the Lakers, who took a 31-20 lead late in the first quarter when Christie had eight of his team-high 21 points. Minnesota tied the score, 41-41, before the Lakers took a 57-52 halftime lead.

When Minnesota opened the third quarter by scoring on six consecutive possessions, the Lakers were suddenly playing catch-up. Shortly after ending a 3:48 scoreless stretch, they fell behind by 78-72 before two baskets by Threatt pulled the Lakers to within two points heading into the final period.

The Timberwolves, who had lost Saturday night at Golden State, finished their western swing at 3-1 as Laettner had 25 points and 10 rebounds.

Not that there was any reason worry. The happy ending was only as far away as Williams’ imagination.