So This Is What Triangle Means

There was, as usual, some feedback and garbled screeches, crossed wiring and mini-explosions.

Kobe Bryant, Shaquille O’Neal and Glen Rice, together on the floor, sharing shots and space and passes--there may never be enough room, completely and comfortably, for the three of them.

But Friday, against the struggling Minnesota Timberwolves, for long stretches and for probably the first significant time this season, Bryant, Rice and O’Neal plugged in and shared a powerful electrical current, pushing the Lakers to a 97-88 victory before 19,354 at Target Center.

“We were just trying to dissect them,” said Bryant, who had a career-high 12 assists, the highest total for a Laker since the 1997-’98 season.

“We just wanted to take our time and really pick them apart. And we were able to do that. We were able to cut them up in certain parts of the game.”

It was not, of course, enough to please their coach--Phil Jackson was too angry about nearly blowing a 20-point third-quarter lead to smile.

The Lakers (an NBA-best 20-5) did not even seem to please themselves much--O’Neal (who had seven assists) and Rice suggested that there was too much individual play after the Lakers built a double-digit lead with a dominant second-quarter performance.

Kevin Garnett, who scored 28 points and finished with a franchise-record 21 rebounds, almost pulled Minnesota back into it on his own in the second half.

Minnesota got within six points a couple of times in the fourth quarter, but never closer, and O’Neal fended them off for good by making two free throws with 1:34 left.

“Every team we play, they’re going to bring their ‘A’ game,” O’Neal said. “They brought their ‘A’ game. We brought our ‘B’ game. It was good enough for us to win.”

Said Jackson: “It was a matter of us having to spend too much energy to win a ballgame. . . . We just blew it open in the second quarter and then just sat on our lead in the third quarter and were willing to play when we had to play.

“That’s not the way I like a team to play basketball, and we had a discussion after the game about that.”

The Lakers’ fifth victory in a row, and 12th in their last 13 games, came against a Timberwolves team in the process of losing its eighth consecutive game.

But it also came in a back-to-back situation (after winning in Atlanta on Thursday) and was a vivid display of how difficult it is to defeat them when Bryant, O’Neal and Rice are running hot.

“The three amigos do it again,” said O’Neal, who scored 24 points and had 13 rebounds in 46 minutes. “Yep, got three weapons on this team. It’s nice to have.”

Rice scored 23 points and had five rebounds, bouncing back from an off-shooting performance in Atlanta.

“We had a rhythm,” said Rice, who made seven of 13 shots. “We had a lot of shots that were pretty easy shots, guys were moving to the open slots, we were working the ball around very well.”

Bryant scored a team-high 28 points on 10-of-24 shooting and was three rebounds shy of a triple-double. He took advantage of the Timberwolves’ defensive strategy of double-teaming the ball early in each Laker possession.

“My vision is coming back,” Bryant said, referring to the seven weeks he sat out because of a broken hand.

One late fourth-quarter play highlighted the temporary synergy: Bryant beat his defender on a drive to the basket, then fired an over-the-shoulder pass to O’Neal for an easy layup after drawing a crowd in the middle.

“That kind of comes from playing with each other,” Bryant said. “I know you’ve seen certain times when I come off pick-and-rolls, and I’ll hit Shaq and the pass will be too hard, because I think he’s still stepping out. We’re still going to learn one another, but we’re getting better at it.”

The Lakers raised their road record to 8-3, second-best in the NBA behind Portland, and now have visions of sweeping this early-test four-game trip that resumes Sunday in Toronto and ends Monday in Boston.

“That’s what you have to win with on the road,” Jackson said of relying on his marquee three for the bulk of the production, “with the guys who come to the dance and the guys who are the tickets.”

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