Saunders’ Players Feel the Heat

What do you say when the pressure mounts and the team you’re coaching is the inexperienced one?

How about: Maybe experience is overrated as a factor?

“Part of this is a learning experience for us,” said Timberwolf Coach Flip Saunders before Tuesday night’s game. “But sometimes when you’ve never been there, sometimes you also don’t know that maybe you shouldn’t be there or what the pressure is and you just go out and play.

“My hope is we’ve played them enough and the way we’re playing, you know, with a lot of energy, we really don’t have time to think about what’s happening.”

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Kevin Garnett, insisting the Timberwolves are pretty good too:

“You don’t just wake up and roll over and there the fourth seed is at the side of your bed. It don’t work like that. We’ve earned this. We’re confident. It’s not just myself who’s confident. It’s 13, 14 other guys. That hasn’t always been the case. It’s a good feeling to display it and not just yap about it but to actually back it up.

“Obviously, I’m not big on words. I always encourage everybody, ‘Don’t run your mouth, just do it, actually back it up.’ ... This is our chance.”

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Though the first four games, Shaquille O’Neal had outscored the Timberwolves’ starting center, Rasho Nesterovic, by a little margin of 121-21.

Said Saunders: “We can’t even find Rasho on Doppler radar.”

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The Timberwolves’ pressing defense changed the tone of this series, making them the aggressors and forcing the Lakers to start their offense later and higher on the floor.

“I’m extremely proud of how hard our guys have played,” said Saunders.

“There’s probably never been a playoff situation where you’ve had a team come and press for 48 minutes a game every game. That just doesn’t happen. It does exert a lot of energy, as far as the people who do it, especially on your guards.”

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Timberwolf General Manager Kevin McHale, on the importance of talent: “You cannot ride a mule to the Kentucky Derby championship. I don’t care if you’re the best jockey in the entire world. Nobody exemplifies that better than Phil Jackson.

“Phil Jackson has never had a bad team. And he’ll admit, ‘I don’t want to.’ Who does?”