<div class="quote_poster">Quote:</div><div class="quote_post">LOS ANGELES, Dec. 2 (Ticker) -- Wally Szczerbiak and Kevin Garnett sensed the Los Angeles Lakers were tiring and pounced. Szczerbiak scored 28 of of his season-high 34 points in the second half and Garnett added 29 to lead the Minnesota Timberwolves to a 113-108 triumph over the Lakers. Video highlights from Wolves-Lakers: Play Minnesota trailed, 92-85, with 7:37 to go before scoring nine straight points. Szczerbiak started the surge with two free throws and ended it with a jumper to put the Timberwolves in front with 5:13 to play. After a layup by Smush Parker pulled Los Angeles into a 96-96 tie with 4:20 left, Minnesota broke open the contest with a 15-5 burst in the next 3? minutes to clinch its fifth win in seven outings. Trenton Hassell sank a shot from the arc, Garnett hit consecutive jumpers, Marko Jaric nailed a 3-pointer and Szczerbiak scored five straight points as the Timberwolves built a 111-101 lead with 55 seconds remaining. Minnesota trailed by 18 points late in the first half but got back in it with a 15-2 run bridging the third and fourth quarters. Szczerbiak scored eight points and Troy Hudson added seven to cut the deficit to 86-82 with 9:12 remaining. Hudson came off the bench to score 18 points and Jaric added 12 for the Timberwolves, who shot 55 percent (42-of-76) from the field and committed just nine turnovers. Odom scored 24 points, Parker had a season-high 22 and Kobe Bryant 20 on 9-of-16 shooting for the Lakers. Second in the NBA in scoring, Bryant had averaged 33 shots in his last seven games. </div> Source Box score Although they lost, the lakers had a better-than-usual game stat-wise. Kobe had 9 rebounds, 8 assists and 20 points, with only 1 turnover. Four starters scored 19 or more points, including Odom, who had 24 (but 6 turnovers). But in the end, the Lakers lost.
I also didn't get a chance to catch the game because I was at work all night. It looks like Phil must have had some talk to Kobe about hit shot selection, or else I don't think we would have seen a change like this. The Lakers were outscored 13 points in a 4th, allowing 36 points, which actually says a lot even though I didn't catch the game. Looks like they had a balanced offense all game from what the game logs indicate, it just seems like they completely blew it on defense. Usually games lost because of defense is what upsets me the most, but I'm happy to see that we at least got a balanced contribution on offense, something I thought was what really killed us in the previous games.
I've never been happier to see the Lakers lose... Not only did Kobe have his best game of the year- the rest of the team played exceptionally well. The Lakers had an 18 point Lead which they blew but considering they just squeezed out a win the night before in OT I'm not surprised. So they were tired and didn't have enough on the defensive end- The entire team (including Kobe) saw what they can do when the offense works and they play team ball. I'm very encouraged by this and hope they continue to play this way. Maybe Kobe will realize that if the teams winning, it doesn't matter how much he scores. If Kobe averages 20 from here on out (he won't i know) and the team starts piling up wins- who do you think is grabbing MVP?
Thats the story so far this year. The lakers look great then somehow give up those big leads they have.....
I thought I was the only one who was satisfied with this game considering the loss. This means that defense needs to buff up obviously. They were scoring well until the usual late game run by the opposing team.
Nah, everyone was happy with this game- I would love to see Kobe put up those numbers every night. He doesn't need to leage the League in scoring, everyone knows he can do that.
Lamar Odom strikes again. Great offensive game, lousy defensive game. Usually it's the other way around, but he seems to be the common denominator for the Lakers losing this season. He played Wally so soft on defense and Wally got in the zone and the TWolves never looked back. This is the second straight huge lead the Lakers have given up in back to back games. Offensively the team played great, but twice now the defensive lapses have killed the Lakers. Having a thin roster because of injuries makes it very hard to compete in back to back games. This is going to be one of those games you look back on later in the season and say, we should have won that one. Odom was a -10 in point production last night. The team should be ashamed giving up 39 points in the 4th quarter at home. I think maybe PJax should take some blame for not switching Odom off Wally, and sticking Kobe on him for the final moments of the game. At least give Wally a different look and let Kobe use his quickness to prevent Wally from getting his hands on the ball. Hopefully the team can get it together on both ends of the floor at the same time, then the Lakers will become a threat out West.
Yeah. I didn't say the game wasn't good. If the lakers keep playing like this, they will win more games. I just dont like the way the lakers keep losing solid leads.
Kobe is a lot better off going for a 20-25 pt. average and 8-10 assists a game. We saw that at the game against the T'Wolves... Odom, seems to only do good depending on what day of the week it is. Come on ODOM!
