Jim Souhan: Bynum's the piece that makes this Lakers team exceptional

The Twin Cities' dormant NBA fans returned en masse to Target Center on Friday night to see the player who will win a championship for the Lakers this summer. They got to see Kobe Bryant, too.

While Bryant was easing his way to 30 points -- if his intensity level could be measured on a blender, he was more purée than liquefy -- the guy who will make all the difference in this year's NBA Finals was making the Wolves look like Lilliputians of the lane during the Lakers' 132-119 victory.

Andrew Bynum, the Lakers' young center, dominated from the start, scoring at will over Wolves center-by-necessity Al Jefferson. Bynum had 23 points and 13 rebounds by midway through the third quarter, as the Lakers built an 18-point lead.

That prompted Wolves coach Kevin McHale to insert Mark Madsen, his way of saying, "See, kids, any of you could grow up to play in the NBA."

Bynum's knee injury didn't keep the Lakers from the Finals last year, but it kept them from winning. This year, with the Western Conference just as deep but hardly as top-heavy, the Lakers have already taken on the sheen of a champion.

They've still got Kobe Bryant, the best player in the game until LeBron James proves he can hit big shots in the fourth quarter of big games. Bryant did nothing spectacular Friday night and still went for 30 points, eight rebounds and five assists.

The Lakers still have Pau Gasol, a wonderful complementary player who can be just that with Bryant and Bynum anchoring the perimeter and the paint.

Roughly a year after suffering a season-ending knee injury, Bynum last week earned Western Conference player of the week honors. "He looks very confident in there right now," Lakers coach Phil Jackson said. "He's playing above the crowd, so to speak, in many ways. I think this is a stepping-out point for him, especially having an honor last week, that gave him some credibility, and he feels good about it.

"He's a better player now than he was when he got hurt last year, but it's taken him this month, January, to get back and feel like, 'OK, I'm over my injury ...'"

The Lakers look good in so many ways -- they're deep with shooters and role players, they no longer need to lean heavily on the mysteriously passive Lamar Odom, and Jackson has finally gotten rid of that ridiculous soul patch.

Friday, Jackson looked more like a banker than an aging hipster, and his team, fresh off an overtime loss to Charlotte, looked similarly cool and professional all night.

The Wolves have no centers who can match up with Bynum, one reason the Lakers scored 64 first-half points, the most the Wolves have allowed in a first half all season.

Asked whether he had improved dramatically from a year ago, Bynum said, "I'm just able to control the game for a longer period of time."

Bynum might put the Lakers in control of this league for quite some time.