Timberwolves Do Their Best Laker Imitation

So much for the cakewalk scenario.

The Timberwolves are right, this series isn’t about them. Everyone knows who they are. They’re the team that lost Stephon Marbury, Terrell Brandon, Chauncey Billups, was fined $3.5 million, had three No. 1 picks confiscated and their owner and general manager suspended, and still wins 50 games a season.

It’s the three-time defending champion Lakers we’re not certain about.

Even at this, more meaningful, point of the season, they’re capable of bringing it all one game and then in the next one, leaving some home as they did Tuesday night, allowing the Timberwolves to regroup and hammer them, 119-91.

“I told our guys we had to come out and play harder than they did,” said Timberwolf Coach Flip Saunders afterward.

“I told out guys we didn’t need a good performance, we didn’t need a great performance, we needed a superior performance.”

So they turned one in.

Kevin Garnett scored 35 points.

Troy Hudson scored 37.

Wally Szczerbiak scored 21.

The Timberwolves shot 56% and outrebounded the Lakers by 17.

“I thought we grew up as a team tonight,” said Szczerbiak. “We learned a lot about what it takes to win in the playoffs.”

So, for the moment, it’s still a series. The Timberwolves will still have to show they can win on the Lakers’ floor, on a day when Shaquille O’Neal doesn’t fly halfway across the country.

On the other hand, after Game 1, which the Timberwolves lost by 19 points, people were wondering if they could win on their own floor.

The town was holding its breath ... over the Wild’s Game 7 at Colorado ... as another non-sellout filed into the Target Center on Tuesday night, as Saunders insisted the three-year-old hockey team wasn’t putting pressure on them. “I mean, it was said earlier in the year when we weren’t drawing that we had to win more,” he said before the game. “Then we won 17 straight at home and we were still in a situation where we weren’t selling out so....

“All we can do is go out and play and try to win and let the other stuff take care of itself and let our marketing people do what they need to do....

“You don’t have high-scoring games [in hockey]. You can have one goal, where a guy kicks it off his skate, and they stall for the next 60 minutes sometimes.

“I wish we could do that. I wish we could score one goal and try to stall for 60 minutes.”

Instead, the Timberwolves tried scoring a lot of goals.

They made 10 of their first 14 shots, going up 10 points early, as it became clear these weren’t Sunday’s Lakers. O’Neal wasn’t sealing off the middle. Nor was Bryant knocking down shot after shot, whether he was open or not. Nor were the other guys dropping three-pointers every time they saw daylight.

Nevertheless, the Lakers are capable of fighting back and they tried, closing to within 28-23, at the end of the first quarter and 35-34 early in the second.

Then the Timberwolves, leaving adolescence at warp speed, turned their full-court defense up another notch and closed the first half with a 22-9 run.

The half ended with Anthony Peeler taking the ball off Bryant in the backcourt and scoring on a layup, Bryant called for palming and Hudson sinking a three-pointer at the buzzer.

That made it 57-43. When the Timberwolves opened the second half with a 13-4 run that made it over.

Hudson, of course, was a Clipper in the last, dark days in the Sports Arena, before the current dark days in Staples Center, and, although he has developed into a dangerous little point guard, no one was expecting this.

“I mean, we go to Troy,” said Saunders. “ ... When we exploit some of their weaknesses, Troy has to be the one to attack. And our centers, both Rasho [Nesterovic] and Marc [Jackson] and Kevin set very good screens.”

The play is the Laker opponent’s staple, the pick-and-roll with the center setting the screen, on which O’Neal customarily stays back, and one can choose between shooting an uncontested jumper or driving the lane.

“You’ve never seen that before, I’m sure,” said Saunders wryly.

The Lakers have seen it a lot and will see it a lot more Thursday and Sunday at home ... and next Tuesday back here ... that we know about now.