Battle of the Ages

He was the last player to leave the training facility Thursday, other Lakers rushing out with their leather handbags, Karl Malone strolling out with three Styrofoam containers of food.

And a growl that did not come from his stomach.

“I don’t have anything to say other than, ‘Let’s go play,’ ” he muttered.

Not a word about guns. Not a peep about war. Nothing comparing the West finals to gangbanging or smart bombing, none of the silly analogies made this spring by his Minnesota counterpart.

Karl Malone made it clear Thursday that he did not want his duel with Kevin Garnett to be seen in a television commercial, nor heard in an MVP chant, nor felt in a fist pump.

Malone wants their standoff to occur on the turf of a man whose scoring ability has been overlooked, whose rebounding has been unappreciated, whose spring has been darkened by the shadows of Yao Ming and Tim Duncan and dirty work.

His turf.

A quiet, murky, nasty turf.

The sort of place where that rock named Duncan slowly eroded, and where a flash named Garnett can burn himself out.

“I’m excited about the matchup ... we’ll see what happens,” Malone said quietly, looking away.

Most afternoons this spring, Malone has been smiling, laughing, congenial, a gentleman farmer with endless patience and nuggets of wisdom.

Thursday, with the team rushing to the airport for the flight to Minneapolis for tonight’s series opener, he was none of that. So you know this is different. Garnett is different. This matchup is not just about a playoff series, perhaps, but a personal history.

This being Malone’s second consecutive series against an MVP, maybe you’ll remember that he also was an MVP.

Everyone talking about Garnett’s inspirational commitment to win his first championship ring, um ... hello? Have you forgotten the guy who’s going to be guarding him?

It’s this sort of sentiment, one suspects, that has the oldest Laker inspired to pound the living jazz out of the dude.

However the execution, the message is unmistakable.

Praise, if you must, K.G.

Just don’t forget K.M.

“Hopefully, he won’t have as much energy at the end of the game as when he starts,” Malone said of Garnett, and when you asked him to elaborate, he just shook his head, and you knew what he meant.

Let’s go play, indeed.

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Quick, who is the only current Laker to ever score as many as 50 points in a playoff game?

Hurry now, who is the only current Laker to make as many as 22 free throws in a playoff game?

He is the same Laker who began the playoffs with a higher postseason scoring average than Kobe Bryant and more postseason rebounds than Shaquille O’Neal.

Yet he is the one Laker who was forgotten in the jubilation produced by the Spur series, perhaps because he doesn’t fly like Bryant or pound like O’Neal or yap like Gary Payton.

Yeah, it’s Malone. He held Tim Duncan scoreless for more than 25 minutes during one stretch of the clinching Game 6 win, but what’s sexy about that?

“We haven’t done anything yet. I’m not excited about anything yet,” Malone said, but wait for tonight.

The Timberwolves’ only chance to beat the Lakers is a brilliant series by Kevin Garnett.

The only Laker who can consistently slow him down is Malone.

In the four meetings between their teams this season, only once did Garnett fail to score 20 points. That was in the one game that Minnesota lost.

That was also the one game in which Malone was sound and in playing shape.

Garnett is coming off a brilliant Game 7 against Sacramento, inspired leadership throughout that series, a man with that hungry championship look ...

“He’s had enough accolades,” snapped Laker Coach Phil Jackson. “Now we have to take him apart.”

That takes us back to Malone, who must do it on a sore ankle and aging knees, and who may soon be only wishing the guy was Tim Duncan.

“The biggest difference between Garnett and Duncan is in their activity level,” Laker assistant Kurt Rambis said. “Garnett is so active and mobile, he can put the ball on all parts of the floor.”

Which means that, unlike with Duncan, Malone must chase.

And, unlike with Duncan, Malone must run.

And, of course, Malone will get help, but how much, and from where?

“He plays in larger spaces ... there’s times in this series when you’ll have to double-team him,” Jackson said of Garnett.

But, then again, Malone is unlike anything Garnett has seen this spring, and maybe we haven’t seen anything yet.

Malone, averaging 26 points a playoff game before this season, has scored that many only once this spring, his torn-shirt, 30-point effort in Game 4 at Houston. More of that would tire out Garnett defensively.

Malone, with a 10-rebound postseason average, has also grabbed double-figure rebounds only twice in the last seven playoff games, meaning there’s potential to bang with Garnett inside in ways that Chris Webber could only dream about.

“I joke that Karl Malone is in the lumber business because he spends his summers cutting down trees,” Rick Fox said. “Kevin Garnett is a pretty tall tree.”

Of course, Garnett is 13 years younger, and two inches taller, and, man, what a sneer.

“He’s not only broken the first-round curse, but he’s proved that the first round is not enough,” Fox said. “This time of year, great players can will their way to a win.”

A couple of weeks ago, everybody was saying that about Tim Duncan.

Today, everybody will be saying that about Kevin Garnett.

What about Karl Malone?

“We’ll see,” he said tersely, climbing into his truck as if he were climbing into a ring.

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Bill Plaschke can be reached at bill.plaschke@latimes.com. To read previous columns by Plaschke, go to Latimes.com/plaschke.

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(BEGIN TEXT OF INFOBOX)

Garnett Factor

Kevin Garnett versus the Lakers in playoffs last season compared with this regular season (Karl Malone sat out two of the four games):

*--* Playoffs ‘03-04 Games 6 4 Minutes 44.2 41.3 Points 27.0 20.5 Field pct. 514 481 Rebounds 15.7 14.5 Assists 5.2 4.5 Blocks 1.7 1.5 Turnovers 3.0 4.0

*--*