When Zach LaVine had a silly, bailout foul on Sacramento’s Derrick Williams last week, coach Flip Saunders turned to the bench and asked his staff, “What is he doing?”
Without starting point guard Ricky Rubio, it’s been an NBA baptism by blaze at times for the 19-year-old rookie point guard.
As Saunders has been hard on him — sometimes exasperated by him — LaVine recalled an old adage: When the coach isn’t yelling at you, that’s when you worry about your play.
With Mo Williams back from illness, LaVine came off the bench free to play his best before friends, family and frat. He scored a game-high 28 points in 25 minutes in the Timberwolves’ 120-119 win Friday against the Los Angeles Lakers.
“Second quarter, I hit a couple of pull-ups, and it felt good,” LaVine said of his 18 points on 7 of 8 makes in the frame. “It’s about time.”
LaVine, who’s previous career high was 13 points on Nov. 14, was scoreless in the fourth quarter. That’s when Kobe Bryant, who finished with 26 points, almost willed a victory. The NBA’s leading scorer had his last-second, game-winning attempt clank off the iron.
“I was really, really surprised he missed that shot; that scared me at the end,” said LaVine, who missed only three of his 14 attempts.
LaVine had a lot to smile about as he kept sweating postgame in the visiting locker room. His sorta-homecoming party was against Bryant, his childhood idol, also in front of about 10 friends and family and nearby where he played his college ball at UCLA.
“I always want to come back and put a show on,” said LaVine, who’s first homecoming act was the Seattle Pro-Am. “I know a lot of UCLA fans were here and are a lot of UCLA fans are mad that I came out. I’m confident person. I like proving people wrong.”
LaVine started one game last season for the Bruins and averaged 9.4 points per game. Yet Flip Saunders selected LaVine and his audacious athleticism with the 13th pick in last June’s draft.
“I think he showed a little bit of what he’s going to be able to do in this league,” Saunders said. (While wearing his other hat of president of hoops, Saunders was stung twice when LaVine fouled the traded-away, second-pick in D-Will.)
When Saunders praised LaVine, it came amid a laundry list of player pronunciations deemed pivotal in the second road win of the season for the Wolves (4-10).
Praise was plausible as the Wolves tied a franchise record for road-game assists at 37.
Vet Williams led with 11 dishes leading to buckets, with Corey Brewer and Gorgui Dieng with eight apiece. Three players at eight dimes or more for the thrice time in the club’s 25-plus years.
“He anchored things,” Saunders said of Dieng, who put up four points, six assists and six rebounds in all 12 minutes in the fourth quarter.
A key, fourth-quarter play was when Thaddeus Young dove for a loose ball, then Williams sprinted and skidded deep into the backcourt, and yet again, Young scraped against the hardwood.
“As veterans, we have to make those types of plays in order to show the young guys, this is how we have to be playing,” Young said, outside of his resurgent 22 points.
Williams, who had battled flu-y suck, pink eye and strep throat since last weekend, stuck 25 points on the team with the worst record in the West. After the Wolves’ win, Williams’ raspberry on his left hip was more badge than bruise. Compared to his still-red, squinty-eye state, the bloody hip probably felt OK in comparison.
On LaVine’s night, Williams praised and pushed on.
“He should love it and forget about it because Sunday is a different ballgame,” Williams said in respect toward his former squad, the Trail Blazers.