Garnett paces Wolves over Lakers

Wally Szczerbiak added 25 points for the Timberwolves, who beat the Lakers for a fourth consecutive time. Trenton Hassell added 13 points and Marko Jaric scored 12 and added nine assists. Eddie Griffin came up huge defensively with 12 rebounds and four blocked shots in the win.

"Defensively we’ve been playing at a very high level now," Garnett said. "It’s fueling us, it’s winning games, it’s giving us confidence. Hopefully we can be consistent with that."

Kobe Bryant had 35 points, but also committed seven turnovers for the Lakers, who had their four-game winning streak broken. Lamar Odom contributed 16 points and Chris Mihm totaled 15 points and 11 rebounds for Los Angeles, which fell behind early and never recovered.

"We could have played better," Odom said. "They seem to have our number a little bit. We have to be able to fight over picks and communicate. They just beat us tonight at execution."

Bryant shot 11-of-20 from the field and 10-of-12 from the free-throw line, but even his outstanding performance couldn’t boost the Lakers to the lead once all night.

The Timberwolves started the game with an 8-2 spurt and led 27-18 after one quarter.

A Jaric jumper extended Minnesota’s lead to 48-32 with 2:49 left in the half, before the Lakers scored the final eight points of the second quarter, including a three-pointer from Luke Walton.

An Odom layup had the Lakers within 60-56 with 4:33 remaining in the third quarter, but the Timberwolves responded with the next 10 points. Szczerbiak started the run with a three-pointer before converting a three-point play. He also had a layup and made a technical foul shot during the spurt, and Minnesota was in front 74-63 heading into the fourth.

Kwame Brown’s basket brought LA within 80-75 with 5:06 remaining, but Garnett canned a fadeaway jumper and Szczerbiak drove in for a layup for a nine-point advantage. The Lakers didn’t get closer than seven after that.

Game Notes

Minnesota outrebounded the Lakers, 42-33...Szczerbiak was 10-of-15 from the field...The Timberwolves missed 10 of their 24 foul shots...Minnesota has won seven of the last 10 meetings.