Brandon, Timberwolves on Target

MINNEAPOLIS (AP) -- Terrell Brandon was awfully close to perfect, and 
Damon Stoudamire was perfectly awful. 


Brandon scored 28 points in his best playoff performance and shut 
down his boyhood pal from Portland as the Minnesota Timberwolves 
staved off elimination with a 94-87 victory over the Trail Blazers on 
Sunday. 

"No matter who wins, our neighborhood wins," Brandon said after the 
Wolves pulled to 2-1 in the best-of-five series. "This is something 
we'll talk about for years after the season is done." 

Maybe Brandon will, but Stoudamire, who scored just two points would 
just as soon forget his worst career performance, postseason or 
otherwise. 

"To sum it all up, I stunk up the place," Stoudamire said. "By all 
rights, they should have thrown me out of here. But I'll tell you 
what, I won't stink it up again." 

Game 4 is Tuesday night at Target Center, and Kevin Garnett said the 
Wolves are counting on a repeat performance. 

"We have no choice but to do this again," he said. 

Otherwise, the Wolves will be rendered first-round fodder for the 
fourth straight season. 

"Now we have a series," Wolves coach Flip Saunders said. "Now each 
team has taken care of its home court and we need to do it one more 
time." 

While Stoudamire was 0-for-8 from the field with one rebound and as 
many assists (six) as fouls, Brandon came within three rebounds of 
joining Garnett with a triple-double. 

He was 10-of-16 from the field, 6-of-6 from the line and had just one 
turnover while playing every second of the intense game. 

"I didn't play tough because this was Portland," Brandon said. "This 
was do or die. I'll take another 48 if that's what Flip and the team 
needs me to do." 

Scottie Pippen, who scored just 16 points after getting 28 and 21 in 
Portland, said what Brandon did shouldn't surprise anyone. 

"He's one of the top point guards. They're very patient offensively 
and he's a great leader," Pippen said. "It doesn't hurt to have K.G. 
on your team, either." 

Garnett, who has just two triple-doubles in five NBA seasons, had his 
second triple-double in a week with 23 points, 12 rebounds and 10 
assists. 

"We've been in both games before this," Garnett said of the Wolves' 
three- and four-point losses at Portland last week. "It does a lot 
for our confidence. This was a must-win and we came in and won." 

Brandon not only handled Stoudamire, who is three years younger, but 
also his feisty backup, Greg Anthony, who logged 20 minutes. 

"It takes a lot of energy to have to guard Damon because he's faster 
than me," Brandon said. "Then, Greg comes in and guards me fullcourt 
and that takes more energy." 

But Brandon never backed down. 

"He played an excellent game," Stoudamire said. "I said at the 
beginning of the series, if he played good for them, they'd win this 
series." 

That's still a long shot, even if Brandon can reproduce one of the 
finest all-round playoff performances recorded by a point guard. 

Only four teams have overcome 2-0 deficits since 1984, when the 
league adopted the best-of-five format for the first round of the 
playoffs. 

Playing just their second home game in three weeks, the Wolves did 
what they couldn't do in Portland: stifle Pippen and execute down the 
stretch. 

Steve Smith scored 22 for the Blazers, who hit their first 17 free 
throws. When they finally missed, Brian Grant got his own rebound 
with a chance for Portland to cut its 80-77 deficit. 

But Grant committed an offensive foul with just under five minutes 
left and the Blazers never had a better chance to catch up. Joe Smith 
made two free throws and Anthony Peeler (13 points) stole the ball 
and scored on the break for an 84-77 lead. 

Arvydas Sabonis hit a wide-open 3-pointer to cut it to 84-80 with 
3:18 left, but the Blazers could get no closer and Brandon hit all 
six of his free throws in the final 28 seconds. 

Sabonis finished with 17 points and Rasheed Wallace had 15. 

Portland trailed by seven at halftime but tied it at 68 heading into 
the fourth quarter behind 10 points from Pippen and eight from 
Sabonis, each of whom had a quiet first half. 

The 10th sellout crowd of the season provided a much-needed boost for 
the Wolves, who hadn't played but one home game since April 10. 

"This crowd is bananas," Garnett said. "It's like a fruit basket -- 
bananas, coconuts, couple of sour grapes. This crowd has always been 
something special. 

"I wish you could all be me and feel it." 

Game notes
The Wolves immediately began selling the 4,000 available tickets for 
Tuesday night's game. ... The teams combined for just 13 turnovers, 
tying an NBA playoff record set by Detroit and Boston on May 9, 1991
. ... Minnesota established new playoff highs in field goal accuracy 
(53.5 percent) and three-point accuracy (60 percent). Their six 3-
pointers doubled their output from Games 1 and 2.