Another L.A. Foe Thrown to Wolves

The marks must now be categorized, this Laker winning streak having reached such an extreme:

Tuesday: the franchise mark for consecutive victories to start a season.

Wednesday: the black-and-blue mark left on the Minnesota Timberwolves, shaped as a 118-93 Laker win when their fourth quarter of 56% shooting and 34 points turned a game into a rout before 17,505 at the Forum.

At 10-0, the Lakers have their best run since the 1990-91 team won 16 in a row, and have tied the league mark for the ninth-best opening ever. On the other hand, they don’t even have the top record for this season--the Atlanta Hawks are 11-0--but this run could become a sprint with the schedule ahead.

“We know we can lose if we don’t go out and put forth the effort,” Nick Van Exel said after he had 17 points and eight assists to continue his personal great start. “But if we put forth the effort we know we can’t lose.”

On this night, they put forth.

“I think the big thing was, no doubt, they played with a lot more energy,” Minnesota Coach Flip Saunders said.

“There’s a reason why they’re 10-0 right now, there’s a reason why they are the best team in the league right now. It’s because they are very, very versatile. They have an outside game, they have an inside game, and they play a lot better defense than they did a year ago.”

Shaquille O’Neal, the inside part, had 26 points and 12 rebounds. Eddie Jones made four of six three-pointers and finished with a game-high 31 points, six assists and four steals.

The winning streak has continued even as the Lakers claimed the most recent six of the victories over nine days, as if the accomplishment wouldn’t have been impressive enough on its own, a stretch that included matchups against the San Antonio Spurs, Houston Rockets, Utah Jazz and a Minnesota team that had already recorded victories over the Phoenix Suns and Spurs.

Now comes the compensation in the schedule.

The Clippers on Sunday, after three days off.

An Eastern swing, but only for three games, making it a very short trip for that distance.

It should seem even shorter since two of the opponents are the Boston Celtics and the Philadelphia 76ers, leaving the Lakers to deal with only one club that figures to make the playoffs, the Miami Heat.

Then they play the Toronto Raptors, back in the Forum, followed by the Nuggets in Denver.

Six games, one against a team with a winning record as of today, first-place Miami. And even with the Heat, the six had a combined 10-36 record heading into Wednesday’s action.

“This has been the hardest part,” Coach Del Harris said of the stretch that ended against the Timberwolves. “But you know how coaches are. The hardest part is the next game.”

Help during the rough patch came from within. The Lakers were able to rest their starters in two of the games, even if a comeback by the Dallas Mavericks made for a fourth-quarter worry, and that came immediately after another blowout that made for more down time.

And then there was the other factor.

Themselves.

“I think there’s nothing like winning to keep the adrenaline going,” Harris said before tipoff Wednesday. “I know I couldn’t get to sleep this morning until 4 o’clock. The adrenaline kept rushing. I suspect it was the same thing with the players.”

If not, coming off the emotional victory at Utah the night before, the first-half play of O’Neal would have served as a push. His previous two outings had been low key--17 points and nine rebounds against the Jazz, 14 points and five rebounds in the rout of the Grizzlies--but the start versus the Timberwolves was more to his standards. He had 16 points on six-of-seven shooting and seven rebounds, and the Lakers had a 59-49 lead.

The Timberwolves, coming off a nice showing themselves, a 108-90 victory at Phoenix, then ensured the Lakers would not go four consecutive days without a game this week, closing to within six with 8:29 left in the third quarter. But that turned out to be more of a nuisance than an actual threat to the Lakers, who regained control in the final minutes of the period and then stepped on the gas in the fourth.

(BEGIN TEXT OF INFOBOX / INFOGRAPHIC)

10 Up, 10 Down for Lakers

A look at the longest winning streaks in L.A. Laker history:

NO.: SEASON

33: 1971-72

16: 1990-91

15: 1987-88

14: 1978-79

13: 1972-73

11: 1972-73

11: 1986-87

*10: 1997-98

10: 1984-85

10: 86-87

10: 87-88

* Current