LOS ANGELES (AP) Though he's a bit more choosy these days, Karl Malone never backs down from a confrontation. The NBA's highest-scoring power forward ever is too close to his first championship to get sidetracked by a little rough stuff.
So if the Minnesota Timberwolves intend to stick with their abrasive style of play in the Western Conference finals, Malone won't hesitate to run over another backup point guard.
''We can play that kind of game,'' Malone said Sunday after Minnesota's 89-71 victory that evened the series 1-1. ''We have to match their intensity, and that's something I can do better than I did. I'll bring a different (game) to the rest of the series.''
The teams combined for seven technical fouls in the final 8½ minutes, and Malone was ejected for a flagrant foul when he ran over Darrick Martin as the guard attempted to set a midcourt pick.
Malone was fined $7,500 by the NBA on Monday.
Though both teams shrugged off the confrontations, expect more of the same in Game 3 on Tuesday night at Staples Center. These clubs have shown an increasing aptitude for the attitude necessary to win late in the playoffs.
''I think it's only the beginning,'' Minnesota coach Flip Saunders said. ''When you play a team two times in three days, you start to not like each other. We played hard, not dirty.''
Desperate to avoid a 2-0 deficit, the Timberwolves cranked up the defensive pressure. In conceding that their opponent gave a better effort, the Lakers expressed disappointment that some of the hard contact went without a foul call.
Saunders simply saw that as a sign of respect.
''The higher the stakes, the quicker the chippiness comes,'' the coach said Monday.
Those who doubt Western teams' toughness haven't been paying attention. Except for Kobe Bryant's artistry and their increasingly outrageous rings, the Lakers' three recent championship teams had little Hollywood glamour: Los Angeles always relished a good scrap, whether verbal or physical.
After a career as a gentlemanly jump-shooter, Rick Fox embraced his role as the Lakers' version of a hockey enforcer, picking on smaller players and responding to opponents who took liberties. If there had been a goalie on the court, the Canadian Fox would have run him and his teammates would have jumped in on the ensuing brawl.
Injuries knocked Fox out of coach Phil Jackson's rotation this season, but Malone has applied the tactics he learned alongside notorious agitator John Stockton for 18 years in Utah and the rest of the Lakers have backed him up.
''That's part of the game,'' Derek Fisher said. ''There are times when teams are looking to deliver a message, and you have to be ready to deliver one of your own.''
After seven consecutive first-round losses, the Timberwolves also discovered the value of chippy, physical play this spring.
Minnesota eliminated Denver in a first-round series featuring mountains of trash talk and Francisco Elson's declaration that Kevin Garnett was ''gay'' for hitting him in the groin.
In the second round, the Wolves' abrasive play frustrated the Sacramento Kings into two major confrontations. That led to Brad Miller's ejection in Game 5 again after flattening Martin, who must be an irresistible tackling dummy for big men and Anthony Peeler's dismissal and subsequent suspension for a forearm to Garnett's face in Game 6.
After those adventures, the Timberwolves' confrontations with Los Angeles are no cause for stress.
''It was probably less physical than the Sacramento series,'' Latrell Sprewell said after Game 2. ''I think the thing you have to do is keep your composure.''
The Lakers never seriously threatened to catch Minnesota after falling behind by double digits early in the fourth quarter of Game 2, but several players ended up in staredowns or mild shoving matches with the Timberwolves. Six of the technical fouls were double calls, and a handful of confrontations went without a whistle.
And though Malone didn't apologize for clobbering Martin, he acknowledged the Lakers allowed the tighter officiating to affect their temperament. Malone also pointed out that Garnett has been called for just two fouls in the series both in the final minute of Game 1, when the Timberwolves were fouling intentionally.
''Probably the first play of the game, I should have know what it was going to be like, and I didn't adjust,'' Malone said. ''Maybe I got the whole team out of sync. It seems like when I handle things, the team handles things. Maybe I was a little testy, and maybe it spread throughout the team.''
