Only the roar of the crowd at the Target Center drowned out the din from thousands of pairs of ThunderStix at the finish Wednesday night. And Minnesota forward Kevin Garnett, who had never even played in the second round of the playoffs in his first seven seasons in the NBA, made the roar even louder by jumping up on the press table to acknowledge the crowd.
With Garnett, on his 28th birthday, leading a fourth-quarter charge, the Timberwolves held off stubborn Sacramento, 83-80, in Game 7 of their Western Conference semifinal series. By winning the first Game 7 in franchise history, the Timberwolves advanced to meet the Los Angeles Lakers in the conference finals, with Game 1 here Friday night.
Garnett, the NBA's most valuable player this season, scored 14 of his 32 points in the final quarter and had 21 rebounds. But in a series in which seemingly safe leads routinely vanished, the Timberwolves nearly gave away a 79-70 lead with 3 minutes 10 seconds to play.
PHOTO: AFP
The Kings, with a 10-2 run, pulled to 81-80 on Doug Christie's 3-pointer with 16.8 seconds left. But Minnesota's Sam Cassell sank two free throws with 16.2 seconds left, and Chris Webber's attempt at a game-tying 3-pointer after faking Garnett to get free -- the third shot on a furious final possession for Sacramento -- spun out at the buzzer.
Had Webber made the shot, the Timberwolves and the Kings would have gone to overtime for the second time in the series and the sixth time in two years, counting the regular season.
"I thought it was going down," Kings coach Rick Adelman said. "I was like, here we go, another overtime. But it was just one of those things."
It was a fitting finish to a series that featured double-digit comebacks in the final four minutes by Minnesota in Game 2 and by Sacramento in Game 3, as well as physical play throughout.
Minnesota's Darrick Martin and Sacramento's Brad Miller were ejected in Game 5 for a third-quarter altercation that began when Martin struck Miller in the groin trying to fight through a pick; Miller's obscene gesture to the Target Center crowd drew a US$10,000 fine. And an elbow to Garnett's jaw by the Kings' Anthony Peeler in Game 6 resulted in his two-game suspension and left Sacramento, which used a seven-man rotation most of the series, one man short.
Minnesota again made guarding Kings guard Mike Bibby a priority; "Contain Bibby" topped the team tasks that the assistant coach Randy Wittman wrote on the locker room dry-erase board before the game. With Latrell Sprewell, Wally Szczerbiak and Fred Hoiberg sharing duty, Bibby managed 15 points while shooting 4 for 13.
The Kings' leading scorer, Peja Stojakovic, who was stifled throughout the series, made 3 of 12 shots and scored eight points.
Sacramento trailed from the opening minutes until late in the third quarter, when it scored 10 consecutive points (four by Miller) for a 58-57 lead. Cassell, limited by back spasms in Games 5 and 6, scored the quarter's last four points to give the Timberwolves a 62-60 lead going to the fourth quarter.
Then Garnett took over. He scored three consecutive baskets -- a turnaround from the lane, a one-hander off glass driving from the left and a one-hander in the left post over Christie -- to make it 70-64 with just over seven minutes to play. Garnett later added a driving scoop past Webber and a turnaround 3-pointer, pushing the lead to nine.
"I've seen him be phenomenal," Minnesota coach Flip Saunders said of Garnett. "But in this situation, with the impact of this game, he's maybe never been better."
Webber, with a chance to put the Kings down by two, missed a layup. Garnett stole a pass, was fouled with 31.1 seconds left and made the second of two for an 80-75 lead. Bibby sank two free throws with 26.9 seconds to play. After Sprewell hit only the first of two free throws, Christie swished a 3-pointer with 16.8 seconds left to make it an 81-80 game.
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