It’s Time for Lakers to Care and Care Alike

Fittingly, at least for the Lakers who got a reality check in Game 3, it was after midnight when Kevin Garnett reached the interview room, quivering with excitement, studiously cooling himself out, his eyes fixed on a prize still a long way off, the one that would make everything he has been through worthwhile.

Can anyone here remember when it was that important to the Lakers too?

That was three titles ago, so long it’s hard to remember what Shaquille O’Neal was like, in the days when the “SportsCenter” gang was always bringing up his proclamation of having won “at every level except college and the pros.”

O’Neal said that in 1996 at his first Laker news conference and it would follow him around after that like a stray cat he’d fed until he won a title. It wasn’t nice, of course, but that’s how it goes in the Untitled Superstar biz.

O’Neal was on a mission in 1999-2000, when he came within a vote of being the first unanimous MVP and added a Finals MVP to put next to it on the mantel.

Then the Lakers’ turbulent dynamic kicked back in, giving us a season dedicated to working things out between Shaq and Kobe Bryant (2000-01), between Shaq and Phil Jackson (2001-02) and, commitment-wise, between Shaq and Shaq (2002-03).

Of course, O’Neal is ready now and, as the Minnesota Timberwolves will tell you, a hard day’s work.

On the other hand, a Laker series isn’t automatically and solely about the Lakers anymore, is it?

This one became an actual series when the Timberwolves won Game 3 in overtime, without Garnett, who’d fouled out moments into it. Even Coach Flip Saunders acknowledged that when he had time to think about what they’d done, he found it “amazing.”

“I was miserable,” Garnett said. “Whatever part I had to play, I was going to play it. If I was going to be a T-Wolf cheerleader without the skirt and pom-poms, I was going to be that.”

They used to say that an all-around player did everything but lead cheers.

This might be the greatest all-around basketball player of them all. Fittingly, he leads cheers too.

Putting Away Childish

Things: Da Kid At 26

“When he was a rookie, he was our emotional leader.”

-- Saunders, on Garnett

When he was a rookie, Garnett had also just turned 19, having arrived from high school at the head of the youth revolution, headed for something special and all the challenges that went with it ... and then some.

He was an All-Star in his second season, when he and Stephon Marbury led the Timberwolves to the playoffs for the first time. But then came Marbury’s split, the addition of Terrell Brandon, the loss of Terrell Brandon, the Joe Smith death sentence, six first-round outs and the end of the honeymoon in the Twin Cities.

Someone had to take the fall and in this league, blame doesn’t accrue to the least of them but the best.

A year ago, the Timberwolves were swept by the Dallas Mavericks in the first round, Garnett was outscored, 100-72, by Dirk Nowitzki and Garnett’s once-pristine image took a swan dive.

As recently as last week, an anonymous scout told ESPN.com Garnett “is who he is. He’s never been capable of scoring 30 a game every game. That’s just the type of personality he has. He still has a lot of room to grow, but it ain’t going to happen in Minnesota. He has to get on a better team. He has to have help....

“You can’t even show me how he’s helped any of his teammates play better.”

Let’s just hope Mr. X isn’t scouting for your favorite team.

In fact, the Timberwolves’ amazing resilience in the face of their Murphy’s Law history flows directly from Garnett’s ferocity and virtuosity. Forget winning in the playoffs; that they’ve just posted win totals of 50-47-50-51 in the loaded West is one of the wonders of modern ball.

Garnett and Marbury were going to be the next Karl Malone and John Stockton, but the modern Stockton decided he couldn’t handle the new rules that limited him to $80 million when the modern Mailman got $120 million.

Of course, the way Marbury figured it, he was the trigger man and Garnett the naturally deferential one. It was true then, but less so each season after that, and is no longer valid now.

Garnett says the criticism after the Dallas series was “hurtful” but only made him work harder. He raised his game this season and it has just risen again in this series with his eye-popping averages -- 30-16-6.

“KG’s always been a predator defensively,” Saunders says, “but offensively, he’s been ... more of a counterpuncher. Now he’s become a more aggressive-type player with the ball, there’s no question.”

To see Garnett every day is to appreciate the depth of his game. He still isn’t a Kobe Bryant/Tracy McGrady scorer, but he’s the game’s most complete player.

An annual All-Defense first teamer, he now roams inside the Laker offense, helping double-team O’Neal, creating havoc everywhere else, much as Scottie Pippen once did for Jackson ... except Pippen was only 6-7.

“We basically told KG to be somewhat of a rover,” Saunders says. “I told him to use his own judgment, whether he wanted to either sag off or pressure up on guys, to keep them a little bit off balance.

“The thing about him ... he can help cover, but he’s got the length and the quickness to get back and contest shots. So it’s not like a lot of guys, when they help out, [opponents] swing it to their man and they can’t get back.”

Garnett, making progress toward, if not yet on the verge of, a breakthrough, is determinedly subdued now.

“Essentially, you guys [reporters] are talking like this thing is over, and it’s not,” he said. “I don’t want to be perceived as looking at it like this thing is over with.

“Yeah, we won a big game ... but I’m trying to put myself in their position, that they’re wounded and if you feel like you’re wounded, you come out more aggressive.

“This series is by far not over yet. Yeah, we won in L.A. but we can’t get to a point with you guys and between ourselves that we can lose focus and think this thing is over, ‘cause it’s not. It’s far from over. If anything, it’s more of a war now.”

We’re Coming, Mom!

Hey, What Time Is It?

On the bright side for the Lakers, their missing sense of urgency shouldn’t be a problem anymore.

Their casual approach has become such a part of local lore, as they drifted lower in the standings each season before launching yet another title run, it now seems accepted practice.

Of course, the more they cheat, the harder it gets ... and the more often they get away with it, the more they cheat.

So here they are today, flirting with the crowning indignity of first-round elimination, which might actually come in handy as a teaching tool, because -- you could ask Jackson -- nothing else has worked.

If they could use an attitude adjustment, the Lakers are anything but faint-hearted. With motivation presumably no longer a problem, they can be expected to play better, especially on defense, after letting the

Timberwolves shoot 51% for three games and average 110 points.

But there are other issues cropping up. With possible matchups coming against the Spurs and Kings, the Lakers didn’t need a knock-down, drag-out matchup in the first round.

Nevertheless, they’ve got one.