New Lakers Drill Timberwolves
February 13, 2008

Prior to the start of the 1957-58 NBA season, Minneapolis Lakers owner Bob Short insisted that his team be known as the “New Lakers.” Like many of Short’s ventures, 1957-58 was a disaster as the Lakers had their worst season with only 19 wins and 53 losses.

On Wednesday night, at Target Center, another version of the new Lakers, this one based in Los Angeles, romped over the Minnesota Timberwolves at Target Center, 117-92. These Lakers, however, are no result of a sleazy Bob Short promotion. The 2008 Lakers are new in the sense that one man, seven-footer Pau Gasol, has transformed the team into legitimate NBA championship contenders.

Los Angeles traded Kwame Brown, Jarvis Crittenton, Aaron McKie, the draft rights to Marc Gasol (Pau’s brother), and two future draft picks to Memphis to get Gasol. After the trade, the Lakers promptly went out and won five of six games (all on the road).

“Obviously Gasol has them energized,” Minnesota coach Randy Wittman said after the game. With Memphis, Gasol was essentially a one-man show. With the Lakers, he’s surrounded by other potent weapons such as Kobe Bryant and Lamar Odom. “I’m real happy the way things are right now,” Gasol told reporters. “Pressure has been taken off my game and that saves me a lot of energy. I don’t have the need to go at it every single time because here we have other guys that are doing that too.”

Led by 29 points from the brilliant Bryant and a triple-double from Odom, the Lakers destroyed a Wolves team fatigued from airline travel. Minnesota played at New Jersey the night before, and flight delays prevented them from landing until 4:00 a.m. Al Jefferson, his jersey bathed with sweat, managed 19 points and nine rebounds in 31 minutes of playing time. Reserve Randy Foye had a season-high 18 points in 29 minutes of play.

The new Lakers are also new in the sense that the team now sports a distinct international flavor. Different countries represented on the Los Angeles roster are Spain (Gasol), the Congo (DJ Mbenga); Serbia (Vladimir Radmanovic), Slovenia (Sasha Vujacic), French Martinique (Ronny Turiaf), and the United States.

The Timberwolves started the game looking for all the world like they wanted to be somewhere else. Los Angeles grabbed a 15-2 lead in front of 13,874 groaning spectators and never looked back. “Minnesota looked like a team that had been on an airplane until four in the morning,” Jackson observed. “We had to come out ready to play and get up quickly so they couldn’t work up any energy.” The Lakers had rested in a Minneapolis hotel the night before as they approached the end of a grueling nine-game road swing that began on January 31. The trip was necessitated by the unavailability of Staples Center due to the Grammy Award ceremonies. On their eastern swing, the Lakers won seven of nine games (the Gasol acquisition occurred when the team was on the road). The team traveled a total of 8,713 miles.

“You have to give the Lakers a lot of credit,” Wittman said, “they went 7-2 on a nine-game trip.” Jackson said that before hitting the road, he thought a 5-4 trip “would be good.”

Against the Timberwolves, the Lakers resembled teams from the Magic Johnson-Kareem Abdul-Jabbar era. With reserves playing the majority of the time in the second quarter, Los Angeles allowed the Wolves to creep within 49-40 but recovered in time to snatch a 60-44 halftime lead.

Jackson decided he would finish Minnesota off in the third quarter and played his starters nearly throughout. The result was a 99-68 lead at the end of the period. All five Los Angeles starters were already in double figures to that point. Jackson then pulled the starters and watched as bench players allowed the Timberwolves the small achievement of outscoring the Lakers by six points in the fourth quarter.

During the contest, Bryant was reported to have encountered a finger injury. When asked by a Los Angeles reporter, if that caused Kobe’s game to drop off, Jackson deadpanned: “Yes, in the fourth quarter.” (Bryant was on the bench for the entire period.) He hit all 13 of his free throws.

Twenty-eight Laker points came off Minnesota's 16 turnovers, including 18 off 11 in the first half. Odom finished the game with 16 rebounds, 10 points, and 10 assists. Gasol had 19 points and grabbed nine rebounds. The unheralded Vujacic came off the bench to score 15 for Los Angeles.