Wolves' Wiggins will try to contain Kobe as much as possible

Normally a game between two teams stuck at the bottom of the Western Conference wouldn't get much attention. But this one is different.

The Timberwolves' game Sunday night with the Los Angeles Lakers at Target Center will start with Lakers star Kobe Bryant needing just nine points to pass Michael Jordan and move into third place on the league's all-time scoring list.

Which is why, after Saturday's practice, Wolves coach Flip Saunders joked about how the team planned to defend Bryant. "We're going to go with the triangle-and-two," he said. "Three guys on Kobe, two guys on everybody else."

After having his 2012-13 season ended by a torn Achilles' tendon, Bryant returned to action in December of the following season. But, after playing a handful of games, a knee injury ended that season. This season, with the Lakers battling age and injuries, Bryant is averaging 24.5 points per game — right about his career average — through 23 games. But the Lakers (7-16) have won just two more games than the Wolves (5-17).

But Bryant's legendary intensity has not waned one bit. On Thursday, practicing with his team for the first time this month — he is usually kept out of such scrimmages to keep him fresh — Bryant ripped into his teammates, calling them "soft like Charmin." Much of the rest of his message was fairly profane.

But it appeared to work. Friday in San Antonio the Lakers beat the Spurs in overtime.

"Look, we can all criticize my style of leadership all day long," he told reporters after the game. "You can sit there and [say] it's uncomfortable, it's whatever, but I've been doing that since high school.''

Admirers now foes

Which, by the way, was a long time ago.

When Bryant came into the league in 1996, Wolves rookies Zach LaVine and Andrew Wiggins were both 1-year-old kids.

Wiggins, who will likely take the lead trying to guard Bryant on Sunday, remembered watching Bryant play on TV with his father, Mitchell, growing up. "Kobe is such a great scorer, all I can do is try to make it difficult for him," Wiggins said.

In a 120-119 victory over the Lakers in Los Angeles on Nov. 28, LaVine came off the bench to make 11 of 14 shots on the way to a career-high 28 points in a game that ended with Bryant guarding him. It was, LaVine said, a strange experience.

"Everybody has that one person, and he was the one for me," LaVine said of Bryant. "He was my idol growing up. It was crazy to be on the floor with a guy you watched your whole life.''

Wiggins, meanwhile, was asked to guard Bryant for a good chunk of the game. Bryant hit 10 of 18 shots and scored 26 points. Wiggins took just six shots, made one and scored three points.

"He was a little in awe of the situation," Saunders said of Wiggins. "How could you not be when you're going against a guy like that the first time?''

Sunday is the rematch.

Wiggins, more assertive of late, has averaged better than 20 points his past three games. But you can bet Bryant will again give Wiggins all he can handle.

Saunders recalled coaching Bryant in the 2004 All-Star Game. " I said, 'Let's pick up on defense.' And when the game opened Kobe was picking up at 94 feet," Saunders said. "Then at halftime — that was the first year you could play zone — he said, 'Coach, let's play some of that zone you guys play at Minnesota.' He wanted to win. That's him. He just wants to win, no matter what it is.''