Garnett Gets Back Into MVP Shape

Sam who?

The Big Three were reduced to the Big Two 43 seconds into Game 2, but Kevin Garnett kept the math from getting too fuzzy by becoming himself again.

Garnett shrugged off a subdued Game 1 with a subconscious scoring burst in the fourth quarter of Game 2. He finished with 24 points, nine in the fourth quarter when the Minnesota Timberwolves tucked away the Lakers and evened the Western Conference finals at 1-1.

All the wrong words were said about Garnett after Game 1 -- lacked aggression, played flat, looked tired -- but he played like the league MVP Sunday night in the Timberwolves’ 89-71 victory, helping overcome the early loss of Sam Cassell because of a back injury.

“We didn’t have a choice,” Garnett said. “Our general was out. Everybody just sort of looked at each other and said that we have to regather ourselves.”

Garnett did his best regathering in the final quarter. He scored nine of the Timberwolves’ 10 points midway through the quarter, turning a 12-point lead into a 20-point laugher when he was through.

Or, as center Ervin Johnson said, “He put us on his shoulders at some point in time and scored four straight baskets.” Close enough.

Garnett started the run with a 15-foot turnaround jumper, good for a 76-62 lead with 7:35 to play. Wally Szczerbiak made a free throw and Garnett followed with a free throw, a driving layup, a 17-foot jumper and another 15-foot turnaround.

Coach Flip Saunders said after Game 1 that Garnett did not get enough touches. He had plenty on Sunday.

“I was a little more aggressive,” Garnett said, adding that he watched the tape of Game 1. What he saw was the opposite of what helped him receive 120 of a possible 123 first-place votes in the MVP balloting. Garnett was passive in Game 1, seemingly confused by Karl Malone’s defense and Kobe Bryant’s occasional double-team, finishing with 16 points on seven-of-15 shooting.

Game 1 wasn’t vintage Garnett, particularly after his 32-point, 21-rebound effort in an elimination game against the Sacramento Kings. Afterward, Garnett punctuated the Timberwolves’ first foray to the conference finals by dancing on the scorer’s table and yelling to the Target Center crowd with the public-address announcer’s microphone.

“That seventh game against Sacramento took so much out of him,” swingman Latrell Sprewell said, adding that Garnett was a little flat in Game 1. “Tonight, he took over the game. He was more aggressive. That’s what we need him to do.”

Garnett also played well defensively, helping limit Malone to five points in 28 minutes, and confirming the Lakers’ pregame assertion that they hadn’t seen the last of Garnett.

“KG’s a great player,” Shaquille O’Neal said. “You’re not going to get him out of rhythm. This is his first MVP, it probably should have been his second or third. He’s one of five players that you won’t get him out of rhythm and you won’t stop him.”

Garnett’s job gets only harder if Cassell can’t return at full strength. For one game, though, Garnett was back to MVP form.

“Game 2, we wanted to come out and not only initiate, but we wanted to have the energy,” Garnett said. “We were just aggressive for 48 minutes and that’s how we’ve got to be against this team.”

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Big Matchup

The Lakers’ Karl Malone offset Minnesota’s Kevin Garnett in Game 1. That wasn’t the case in Game 2:

*--* KM1 KG1 KM2 KG2 Min 44 45 28 42 FG 8-13 7-15 2-5 10-20 FT 1-2 2-2 1-1 3-5 Reb 11 10 9 11 Ast 4 2 1 3 Pts 17 16 5 24 TO 0 4 5 2

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