On in a Blaze of Glory

MINNEAPOLIS —  Timberwolves are:

A) Furry animals with sharp teeth;

B) Upset winners in their Western quarterfinals series against Seattle;

C) The answers to the Lakers’ prayers;

D) All of the above.

Sorry, Laker fans, the answer is still only A.

George Karl’s Seattle career passed before his eyes Thursday night but when it was over, the SuperSonics were still alive and he was still coaching them, courtesy of a gut-check 98-90 victory over the Minnesota Timberwolves before 19,006 screaming fans that tied this series, 2-2.

“Everybody showed a lot of heart,” said Karl, looking pretty good for someone who hadn’t exhaled for 48 hours since losing Game 3. “I’m proud of them.

“We’ve got a big game Saturday. We’ve been 2-2 before going back home and lost [to Denver in 1994]. We have a lot of memories in Seattle we can focus on and persevere through.”

In Seattle, memory is a horror show and the Timberwolves almost gave them another one here this week, which would have made it three first-round exits in five seasons. This would have sent the Wolves into the next round against the Lakers, who’d have liked meeting a bunch of slender kids they manhandled this season, 4-0, rather than the wily Sonics, who beat them, 3-1, and would have the home-court advantage, besides.

One more SuperSonic loss might also have ended the Karl era in Seattle, since he’s a free agent and his relationship with management has frayed.

“I’m not going to lie to you, it’s probably crossed my mind,” said Karl before the game, “but I respect what this team has to do and I respect the game too much to really . . . There’ll be plenty of time--hopefully in a month or six weeks when the season’s over--to dialogue that commentary. . . .

“You go through a lot of different emotions [waiting for this game]. You get excited, you get positive, you get paranoid, you get anxiety. You wake up scared, you wake up happy, you wake up excited, you wake up aggressive . . .

“Our confidence probably all year long has been our shooting and we really don’t have anybody shooting the ball well right now. If I had to hope for something, it’d be that we find someone who’s shooting it early.”

Minnesota fans, treating this like a carnival, came with signs like “Titanic, Berlin Wall, Sonics.” They stood and waved towels all game, hooting Vin Baker into six missed free throws in a row in the first half.

Nevertheless, Karl’s hopes came true. He found a shooter, Hersey Hawkins, who made four three-pointers in the first quarter, as the Sonics arose from their death beds to grab a 25-11 lead. Of course, by the third quarter, the Timberwolves had gone ahead, 61-58, and the sands seemed to be running out of the hourglass.

Karl’s bench, of old Dale Ellis, creaky Nate McMillan and even-slower-than-he-used-to-be Sam Perkins had suffered through a woeful series and a bad first half, making people wonder if the coach would go back to them.

But Karl is nothing if not loyal to those that got him here. He put them back in and, lo and behold, they went on a 9-2 run at the end of the third quarter, Perkins hitting a three-pointer and setting up another basket with a steal, popping the Sonics back into a 67-63 lead.

It grew to 80-71 early in the fourth, after which they held the Timberwolves off, as Hawkins, the smallest starting shooting guard in the league, contained Minnesota’s explosive point guard, Stephon Marbury. Marbury shot three for 11 and had only four points until the closing minutes.

“I was just missing shots tonight,” said Marbury. “He played great defense, though. He stayed in front of me and he brought me to the defense. He made me go where they wanted me to go and that was to the help.”

Squealed Hawkins: “Yeah! I mean, that guy’s too quick to guard by himself.”

Cursed by their history or not, it was a relieved band of Sonics who flew back to Seattle to gird themselves for the final push. Meanwhile in Minneapolis, the greatest week in Timberwolves history ended, not with a bang but with Marbury lamenting, “We let them off the hook.”

If it’s any consolation, young guys, all Lakerdom is sighing with you.