CRIPPLED LAKE SHOW RULE FOURTH QUARTER
LAL: 16 – 25 – 25 – 39 – 105
MIN: 24 – 27 – 27 – 18 – 96
16-13 Los Angeles Lakers lead series against 21-8 Minnesota Timberwolves 2-0
ABOVE: Lakers’ Kareem Rush (21) dunks over Kevin Garnett (21) and also passed two other Wolves defenders
Minnesota The Los Angeles Lakers had an amazing fourth quarter comeback last night to take a two game lead into Game 3 of the NBA semi finals. The main factor which made this comeback less probable was the fact that the Lakers’ Kobe Bryant was already out with injury whilst Lamar Odom and Kwame Brown both made exits out of the game with arm injuries.
The game was fought hard by both sides as three near skirmishes broke out. Fists were flying in the first quarter just 3 minutes into the game. Kevin Garnett who had scored in the paint retaliated to Odom’s hard foul by punching him in the shoulder. Odom struck back but slipped on the slippery floor and landed on his left wrist. Caron Butler tried to join in by jumping on Garnett’s back and wrapping his arm around his neck, as players from both sides rushed on court to separate the two. Odom was helped off the floor by the Lakers’ trainers and both Butler and Garnett were booked for technical fouls.
Another close fight broke out on the Lakers bench when Rudy Tomjanovic and shooting guard Eddie Robinson were arguing. Robinson who was signed by the Lakers late in the season complained about playing time. He was seen throwing his towel at the coach during a time out after being refused to be let back onto the court. Luke Walton then stood up for his coach and stood in Robinson’s way back to the bench. The two players exchanged inaudible words and Robinson was seen raising his fists before the two were separated. Eddie Robinson then left the game early.
In the middle of a Lakers scoring run, Kwame Brown was tripped on his way to the basket by Wolves’ centre Michael Olowokandi. While Brown was lying in agony, Kareem Rush confronted the 7’0” centre. Kandi shoved Rush and sent the 6’6” guard onto the floor as officials broke the two players up. However, the Minnesota crowd cheered as the officials didn’t award any extra free throws for the unsportsmanlike act and blamed Rush for making matter worse.
Tomjanovic talked about all three of the different occurrences. “When Caron Butler jumped onto Kevin’s back, I was very disappointed. There is never any reason for you to try and start a fight especially when your teammate has already tried to and hurt himself more than the other person. In regards to Eddie, I think it might be the end of his career in this team. What really got to me was that Olowokandi didn’t get anything for that shove of Rush, that is just not fair at all!”
The Target centre crowd was in hysterics for most of the game as the Tinberwolves led from the start. They opened the game with a 14-0 run and maintained a steady lead until the final 2 minutes of the game.
Kevin Garnett was a monster once again for his team as he scored 18 first half points and finished the game on 26 points, 13 rebounds and 5 blocks. Unfortunately for the home side, Garnett was ineffective in the final period as he went scoreless in the final 8 minutes of the match. Wally Szczerbiak tried to help out for his team as he added 19 and 11 for the Timberwolves.
Kwame Brown scored 18 points, grabbed 13 rebounds in 27 minutes before heading for the change rooms with 7:43 left in the final quarter. Caron Butler impressed the Lakers as he had 19 points, 9 rebounds, 5 assists and 2 steals to cover up Lamar Odom’s absence. Chucky Atkins added 24, 4 and 5 in a team high 42 minutes.
“Great team effort, especially how we finished as a team,” Caron Butler said, “We were missing three of our top guys but that didn’t stop us!”
The Wolves came out ready to fight and planned to try and build a sizeable lead. They did that and lead by as many as 22 in the second quarter however Chucky Atkins scored three straight triples to pull the Lake Show within 10 points at the end of the half. Atkins had scored 13 points in the second quarter and was the only player who shot well as the team shot 36% from the field in the first half.
Wally Szczerbiak squished the Lakers hope of a comeback in the third quarter as he made a four point play with 10:05 left in the third period. “That was huge,” Wally said, “It did great things for our team’s morale.” Wally went on to score 12 points in that quarter.
The Lakers were then able to make a steaming comeback as they scorched the Timberwolves with hot outside shooting. Rush, Dixon and Atkins hit six treys in the final quarter as Los Angeles outscored their opponents by 21 points. “We were just too hot,” Juan Dixon exclaimed.
The Lakers got within two points of the Wolves but couldn’t get any closer for two whole minutes as Karl Malone missed two easy opportunities and missed two shots right in front of the hoop with 1:55 and 1:37 remaining on the clock. Butler broke the losing trend with a jumper and tied the score at 96-all with 1:05 left.
The Lakers didn’t let the Wolves come back after that as Rush hit a trey with 55.8 left, then the Wolves watched Dixon and Malone share three shots at the charity stripe as the Lakers led 102-96 with 16 seconds reaming. Garnett missed a shot inside and Spreewell missed a long range jumper in the final minute and watched on as Caron Butler drilled a three point dagger at the buzzer.
Butler walked off the court with his shooting hand in the air as the Target Center crowd booed them off court. “It hurt to be booed after a win but I guess they are the opposition’s crowd!”
NOTES
The Lakers can close out the series at home in Game 3 in three nights… Both F Lamar Odom and F/C Kwame Brown have been cleared from serious injury… Karl Malone did not score a field goal as he missed all of his 7 shot attempts… Sam Cassell was held to 6/29 shooting and received hard cristicism from Wolves coach Flip Saunders, “He’s not Allen Iverson or Kobe Bryant. We don’t need him to jack up 30 shots and miss 20 of them!”…
STATS
LAKERS
* PF Kwame Brown: 18 points (9/13 FG), 13 rebounds, 3 assists, 1 blocks in 27 minutes
* F Lamar Odom: 0 points (0/0 FG), 2 rebounds, 1 assists in 4 minutes
* F Caron Butler: 19 points (6/15 FG, 4/9 3PT, 3/6 FT), 9 rebounds, 5 assists, 1 block, 2 steals in 34 minutes
* SG Kareem Rush: 15 points (6/15 FG, 3/7 3PT), 3 rebounds, 4 assists in 30 minutes
* PG Chucky Atkins: 24 points (9/23 FG, 4/11 FT, 2/2 FT), 4 rebound, 5 assists, 1 steals in 42 minutes
PF Karl Malone: 2 points (0/7 FG, 2/2 FT), 11 rebounds, 2 assists in 24 minutes
C Chris Mihm: 4 points (2/6 FG), 5 rebounds, 2 assists, 2 blocks in 21 minutes
PG Juan Dixon: 13 points (5/20 FG, 1/6 3PT, 2/4 FT), 5 assists, 2 steals in 20 minutes
C Brian Grant: 8 points (3/3 FG, 2/2 FT), 12 rebounds, 2 assists in 22 minutes
SF Luke Walton: (0/2 FG, 0/1 3PT), 2 rebounds, 1 steal in 17 minutes
SG Eddie Robinson: 2 points (1/1 FG), 1 rebound in 3 minutes
C Vlade Divac: DNP (Coaches Decision)
Points: 105
* denotes satarter
TIMBERWOLVES
* C Michael Olowokandi: 10 points (5/9 FG, 0/2 FT), 13 rebounds, 1 block, 1 steal in 34 minutes
* PF Kevin Garnett: 26 points (11/14 FG, 4/5 FT), 13 rebounds, 5 blocks, 2 steals in 42 minutes
* SF Wally Szczerbiak: 19 points (8/21 FG, 2/5 3PT, 1/1 FT), 11 rebounds, 2 assist, 1 block in 37 minutes
* SG Laterrel Spreewell: 8 points (3/14 FG, 0/6 3PT, 2/2 FT), 5 rebounds, 4 assists, 2 steals in 40 minutes
* PG Sam Cassell: 14 points (6/29 FG, 2/9 3PT, 2/2 FT), 2 rebounds, 3 assists in 35 minutes
PG Troy Hudson: 4 points (1/7 FG, 0/4 3PT, 2/4 FT), 3 rebounds in 13 minutes
SG Fred Hoiberg: 7 points (2/4 FG, 1/3 3PT, 2/2 FT), 3 rebounds, 1 assist in 12 minutes
C Earvin Johnson: 2 points (1/1 FG), 5 rebounds, 1 assist, 2 blocks in 15 minutes
SG Trenton Hassell: 4 points (1/2 FG, 2/2 FT) in 9 minutes
PF Mark Madsen: 2 points (1/2 FG), 1 rebounds in 7 minutes
PF Eddie Griffen: DNP (Coaches Decision)
PG Anthony Carter: DNP (Coaches Decision)
Points: 96
* denotes starter