Lights, Camera, Clippers!

The Clippers waited more than three years to play before a national television audience and Lamar Odom made sure they took home a victory.

Proving once again to be the player to carry the Clippers in crunch time, Odom had a key basket and blocked shot in the last minute and came within three rebounds of a triple double in a 103-96 victory over the Minnesota Timberwolves on Wednesday night.

Before a TNT audience and a Staples Center crowd of 15,636, the Clippers did not play like an inexperienced team in the fourth quarter to win their first nationally televised game since Nov. 26, 1997.

“This was big,” said Odom, who finished with 24 points, 10 assists and seven rebounds. “We wanted to go out and prove that we’re here and that we’ve arrived.”

Rookie Darius Miles had a career night with 17 points and six rebounds in 36 minutes, which included some good defense against Kevin Garnett. Eric Piatkowski had 19 points off the bench for the Clippers (9-18), who shot 56.3% and outrebounded the Timberwolves, 57-39.

The Clippers got off to one of their familiar slow starts, but this time Coach Alvin Gentry did not hesitate to go to his bench.

Before the game was six minutes old, power forward Brian Skinner was replaced by Miles and moments later, Corey Maggette was in at shooting guard in place of Quentin Richardson.

“We just have to have more juice and more energy at the start of the game,” Gentry said. “Somehow, we have to get that done . . . even if that means going to earlier subs than we normally would.”

With Miles and Maggette on the floor together, the Clippers literally took off. By outrunning the Timberwolves down the court, Miles and Maggette teamed up for a series of open-court dunks and layups, leading the Clippers to a 12-0 run.

The highlight of the run came on an alley-oop dunk by Miles off a midcourt pass from Odom, who had to look off Maggette first. Miles’ dunk gave the Clippers a 24-17 late in the first quarter and forced Minnesota Coach Flip Saunders to go to his reserves.

Former Lakers Anthony Peeler and Sam Jacobson, along with veteran forward Sam Mitchell, gave the Timberwolves the boost they needed in the second quarter. Despite the Clippers’ 55% shooting in the quarter, Minnesota was able to regain the lead at halftime, 53-52.

The pace of the game was not as quick in the second half as both teams became more cautious. Unfortunately for the Clippers, turnovers have been an issue all season and the Timberwolves took advantage of a couple of costly miscues by Maggette late in the third quarter to take a seven-point lead into the fourth.

But over the final quarter, Miles was able to shut down Garnett, holding him to one point over the final 12 minutes with the help of Sean Rooks and Odom.

The Clippers outscored Minnesota, 28-14, in the fourth quarter with Odom and Piatkowski doing most of the damage offensively.

But the story was Miles and his defensive play on Garnett, who took only two shots and missed both.

“I have a lot of people back home looking at me and I didn’t want to get embarrassed,” said Miles, the youngest player in the NBA.

So in their second NBA matchup, Miles more than held his own against Garnett, who led Minnesota with 22 points.

“He’s coming into his own,” Gentry said of Miles, “but like I have said all along, Darius is going to have good games and he is going to have bad ones. I thought he did a great job defensively on Kevin Garnett, who is one of the best players in the league. Darius made him earn his baskets and he did an awesome job finishing on our fastbreaks.”

Said Odom: “This was great because the only time I’ve seen a crowd like that for us is when we’re playing the Lakers. It was special for the whole franchise. To play on TV and win a close game.”