MINNEAPOLIS -- Terrell Brandon was awfully close to perfect, and Damon Stoudamire was perfectly awful.
Minnesota's Brandon scored 28 points in his best playoff performance to 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' 3- and 4-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.
The Wolves did what they couldn't do in Portland: stifle Pippen and execute down the stretch.