Uh-Oh, Spurs Lose Advantage

Kevin Garnett won the fourth-quarter battle with Tim Duncan, and his underdog Minnesota Timberwolves emerged the winners.

Garnett scored 10 of his 23 points in the fourth quarter Tuesday night to lead visiting Minnesota past the San Antonio Spurs, 80-71, and even their Western Conference playoff series at 1-1.

“All I can say is I’m proud of these guys,” said Minnesota Coach Flip Saunders. “Now we have a series.”

With the victory, the eighth-seeded Timberwolves grabbed the home-court advantage from the No. 1-seeded Spurs in the best-of-five series. Game 3 is Thursday at Minneapolis.

Minnesota led, 37-31, at halftime despite shoddy play by both teams in the first two quarters. The Timberwolves took a 60-51 margin into the fourth period.

Duncan opened the final quarter with a basket for San Antonio and Garnett answered for the Timberwolves. And so it went as Duncan scored the first eight points in the period for the Spurs. Garnett scored the first four for the Timberwolves, and added six more before the final buzzer.

“We just tried to find ways to match their intensity,” Garnett said. “The whole thing was we were totally aggressive, totally aggressive.”

Garnett said he enjoyed his matchup with Duncan and that he tried to make his moves when the Spurs weren’t double-teaming him.

“There was a point that we both looked at each other and winked, like, ‘Good shot, good shot,’ ” Garnett said. “Tim is a great competitor. The key is to take advantage of every one-on-one situation.”

Garnett shot five of eight and grabbed four of his 12 rebounds in the fourth quarter. Duncan had eight points and four rebounds in the final period.

“They moved the ball around well. They had open looks and they knocked them down,” Duncan said.

Duncan finished with 18 points and 16 rebounds, while Avery Johnson had 16 points for the Spurs and David Robinson had 11 points and 10 rebounds.

Orlando 79, Philadelphia 68--So much for Penny Hardaway’s insistence that he couldn’t slow down Allen Iverson and flourish offensively at the same time.

The Orlando Magic stormed back into their first-round playoff series with the Philadelphia 76ers, holding the NBA scoring champion to 13 points while Hardaway scored 22 to pace a victory at Orlando that evened the best-of-five matchup at one game apiece.

Games 3 and 4 will be played in Philadelphia on Thursday and Saturday.

Hardaway, playing with partially torn ligament in his right wrist, scored 10 points during a stretch in which the Magic built a 21-point lead early in the third quarter. The 76ers trimmed their deficit to 59-52 with just under 10 minutes remaining, but couldn’t get any closer.

Iverson scored 30 points to pace Philadelphia’s 14-point victory in Game 1, but found it much tougher to get his shot Tuesday night. He was limited to five points in the first half and wound up missing 11 of 15 shots.

The Magic also did a better job on two other players who hurt them badly in the opener.

Matt Geiger had 23 points and 10 rebounds--both career playoff highs--Sunday, but only seven points and six rebounds this time. George Lynch had six points and three rebounds after having 15 and 12 in Game 1.

After Iverson’s outburst Sunday, Hardaway said he was willing to try to cover the scoring champion one-on-one, a challenge Iverson welcomed. The Magic’s four-time all-star cautioned, however, that his offense might be affected if he spent all night concentrating on Iverson.

Darrell Armstrong wound up covering the 76ers star most of the game, however Hardaway provided help on double-teams.

Nick Anderson scored 13 points for Orlando, while Hardaway made seven of 15 shots and had seven rebounds, four assists and two steals in 43 minutes. Eric Snow and Larry Hughes each scored 12 points for the 76ers.

Around the League

Clipper center Michael Olowokandi had arthroscopic surgery on both knees Tuesday. Olowokandi is expected to be sidelined at least two weeks before he starts his off-season workouts under the direction of Johnny Doyle, the team’s strength and conditioning coach.