Lakers’ Minnesota Flats

So, this won’t be as neat as the Lakers might have thought, or desired, or whatever Game 1 might have suggested to them.

So, the Lakers took their quiet breaths, called it what it was, boarded a bus for two games in Los Angeles, their 119-91 loss to the Minnesota Timberwolves on Tuesday night at the Target Center having tied the best-of-seven, first-round series at a game apiece.

Kevin Garnett and Troy Hudson stood where Kobe Bryant and Shaquille O’Neal had two nights before, Garnett with 35 points and 20 rebounds, Hudson with 37 points and 10 assists.

“They’re going to have to really stab us, cut our hearts out and just put us in the morgue,” Garnett said. “They’re going to have to cut our throats out. This is a team full of pride and we have a lot of character. They’re going to have to cut our throats off.”

He was just starting.

“You can knock us out, we’ll get back up,” Garnett said. “Knock us down again, we’ll get back up and then we’re going to start throwing haymakers. We’re a team that fights. We’re a team that’s going to go down shooting. Granted, they kicked our butts in Game 1. I’ll give them that. But we’re a team that’s confident in ourselves.”

Turned out, the Timberwolves did not lose when the seedings were announced. Garnett left the floor with two forefingers raised. Wally Szczerbiak fairly danced away from the Lakers’ biggest playoff loss in three years, a 120-87 loss to the Indiana Pacers in Game 5 of the 2000 Finals, from the Timberwolves’ largest margin of victory in a playoff game. There had been five previous playoff wins.

“Feels a little different,” Bryant said. “But 11-19 was unfamiliar territory too. So it seems appropriate.”

Despite all appearances from Game 1, it does indeed seem the Lakers will have to play through some familiar regular-season issues. In 48 trying minutes, they did not defend (the Timberwolves made 55.6% of their field-goal attempts), did not rebound (52-35), did not handle the Timberwolves’ press, and did not shoot well themselves (36.3%).

Bryant and O’Neal each scored 27 points and no other Laker scored more than eight points. Bryant hit the rim with a dunk attempt in the first quarter, held his shoulder for a few possessions, and made nine of 28 field goals. Afterward, he said trainer Gary Vitti told him he’d suffered a jammed rotator cuff that “hurt pretty bad at the time,” but had improved. Since his 12-for-16 first half in Game 1, Bryant has missed 29 of 42 shots and the Lakers have lost five of six quarters.

O’Neal had 14 rebounds and made 10 of 19 shots, but was slower to the ball than he’d been in weeks. He played at the end of an arduous six days that began with the death of his grandfather, proceeded through the birth of a son and a side trip through South Carolina, and ended with the crazed Timberwolves, racing and trapping against the step-slow Lakers.

“I don’t think they can play any better than that,” Laker Coach Phil Jackson said. “It obviously was a desperation game. They came out and played the way that would make us appreciate their skills.... I don’t think we’re supposed to sweep every series.”

At the end, the fans chanted “MVP! MVP!” for Garnett. At least the fans that showed did. The game didn’t sell out, the town perhaps having picked up on the league-wide vibe that the Timberwolves might not belong on the same floor with the three-time defending champs.

Apparently, what looked like dejection in the faces of the Timberwolves the day before was determination. Apparently, they simply couldn’t wait to get on the floor again, to take their new strategies and attitudes and see how those looked.

The Timberwolves, who could stop neither Bryant nor O’Neal in Game 1, stopped them both in Game 2, or came close enough.

They would not regain home-court advantage, that being lost in the 19-point game two nights before, but they returned the favor of the blowout, became the tougher team, became the schooled team.

The Timberwolves came with the big adjustments, practically announced them from the roof of The Mall of America, and then ran the Lakers off the floor with them. They gathered every loose ball, or so it seemed, and won in all the little corners they lost in on Sunday.

In Game 1, the Lakers led by 14 at halftime. Two nights later, the Timberwolves led by 14 at the half. They made 66.7% (22 of 33) of their field-goal attempts, while the Lakers were making 38.6% (17 of 44) of theirs. The frustration was such at the end of the second quarter that a TNT cameraman was nearly knocked over by Robert Horry, who, depending on the telling, fell into or shoved the man.

“Those things are hard,” Horry said. “I wanted to make sure I hit him before he hit me.”

When the Lakers came off the floor midway through the first quarter, the score 18-9, Bryant was nodding and smiling and slapping his teammates’ hands. “Attaboy, attaboy!” he cried through the roar of another standing ovation. “We ain’t going anywhere!”

Then, almost in a second, they were gone.

“They played with desperation, they played with a desire to stay in the series,” Rick Fox said. “They played for their lives tonight. We didn’t match that.

“Can they duplicate that? We’ll see.”

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A Bounce-Back in Their Next Step?

The Lakers’ 28-point loss to the Minnesota Timberwolves Tuesday night was their third-largest and seventh by double digits in four playoff appearances (and 60 games) under Coach Phil Jackson. A look at those other losses and how the Lakers fared in the next game:

*--* Margin Score Date Series, Next Game Game No (Where) 33 at Indiana 120, June 16, 2000 NBA Finals, *Won, Lakers 87 Game 5 116-111 (home) 29 Portland 106, at May 22, 2000 Conf. Won, 93-91 Lakers 77 finals, (away) Game 2 19 at Phoenix 117, May 14, 2000 Second *Won, 87-65 Lakers 98 round, Game (home) 4 13 Sacramento 103, at May 24, 2002 Conf. Won, 100-99 Lakers 90 finals, (home) Game 3 13 at Sacramento 101, May 2, 2000 First *Won, Lakers 88 round, Game 113-86 4 (home) 10 at Portland 103, June 2, 2000 Conf. *Won, 89-84 Lakers 93 finals, (home) Game 6

*--*

* clinched series