Kobe Bryant and LA Lakers Meet Solid Competition from Minnesota Timberwolves

The Minnesota Timberwolves overcame an 18-point gap in Sunday night's game, but their 19-6 run in the third quarter wasn't quite enough to put away the Lakers, and Minnesota drew the short end of the stick in the 106-101 contest. Opposing forwards Kevin Love and Kobe Bryant were neck-and-neck in the books—Love had 33 points and 13 rebounds, while Bryant tallied 35 points and 14 rebounds.

Minnesota looked to be in serious trouble in the first half. Rubio played one of his quietest games of the season thus far, and Ridnour struggled as well. Both PGs shot less than 25 percent from the floor, and the Lakers took advantage.

Knowing that a win at home against LA would progress their record to .500, the Timberwolves exploded in the third quarter, fighting hard to secure that "W."

Rubio created electric plays for everyone on the floor, and Anthony Randolph added a spark off the bench—the young forward added nine points in just 15 minutes of play. Martell Webster, back for his second game since undergoing back surgery in September, nailed the three-pointer that gave Minnesota the slight edge (94-93) with only 3:19 remaining.

However, Bryant and his lineup wouldn't allow themselves a consecutive loss.

NBA.com's Jim Beilby recapped the final minutes:

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The Lakers responded with a pair of dunks by Bynum, a jumper and a pair of free throws by Gasol and pair of acrobatic field goals by Bryant to take a nine point lead with 20 seconds to play. The Lakers made the final 20 seconds more exciting than they should have been (Minnesota scored nine points in less than seven seconds), but the deficit was ultimately too much for Minnesota to overcome.

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“We’ve got to learn we’ve got to play with that energy all the time,” Timberwolves coach Rick Adelman said. "[...] We did a lot of good things, we got a lot of fast-break points and second-chance points, but we couldn’t make shots.”

Although Minnesota shot only 39 percent from the field, the team grabbed an incredible 52 rebounds to the Lakers' 41. Fans are used to Love cleaning the boards, but the All-Star found help in Michael Beasley and Nikola Pekovich who had 12 and nine rebounds, respectively.

“[The Timberwolves] kicked our behinds on the glass," commented Lakers coach Mike Brown postgame.

Despite a valiant effort, the Wolves were knocked to 9-11 for the season. Tonight, they fly to Houston where they will face the Rockets at 8 p.m ET.