<div class="quote_poster">Quote:</div><div class="quote_post">If misery loves company, the Lakers and Minnesota Timberwolves are in for a treat tonight at Staples Center. Ten months after squaring off in the Western Conference finals last May, they're hoping just to avoid missing the playoffs this time around, the Lakers for the first time in 11 years and the Timberwolves for the first time in nine, or ever since Kevin Garnett was a rookie out of Chicago's Farragut Academy. With only three weeks left in the regular season, the Timberwolves are ninth in the West, 2 1/2 games behind the eighth-place Denver Nuggets, and the Lakers are 10th, six games out and two games ahead of the Clippers. Never before in NBA history have two teams that met in the conference finals one season failed to make the playoffs the next, so the Lakers and Timberwolves are working on something historical, if not hysterical. "It's amazing how things change," Laker Coach Frank Hamblen said Wednesday, the Lakers' eight-game losing streak having ended less than 24 hours earlier. "We redid our team and they didn't. But it's still amazing. They're playing very good right now ? but they've had one of those seasons."</div> Source
The Lakers are done. They're 6 1/2 games back for the eighth playoff spot in the west. There is always next year!
