"This is what the season is made of," Pippen said. "Use all 82 games to prepare yourself for this one part of the season. I try to step up my game and put all my energy into being aggressive, doing what it takes for us to win by any means necessary. I want to be aggressive on the offensive end, aggressive on the defensive end and hopefully feed some energy into my teammates."

Intravenously, the Blazers fed off Pippen all right. The only player remaining in the NBA with six championship rings (all the with the Chicago Bulls) proved why it was a worthwhile investment when the Blazers dealt six players to the Houston Rockets in September to acquire Pippen.

The 34-year-old forward scored 28 points, grabbed nine rebounds and added a pair of steals and two assists to lead the Blazers to a 91-88 victory over the T-Wolves in the Rose Garden in Game 1 of this first round playoff series.

But more important than his numbers was the way his attack mode got into the head of Minnesota star Kevin Garnett. Although Garnett did have a triple-double, with 11 assists and 10 rebounds to go along with his 12 points, the 6-of-20 shooting reflected his reaction to the Blazers' defense in general and Pippen's double-teams in particular.

Throughout the game, Pippen would leave rookie Wally Szczerbiak to attack Garnett when he got the ball. To his credit, Garnett often found Szczerbiak, who had 15 points, and Malik Sealy led the Timberwolves with 23 to help account for Garnett's unusually high assist total.

Nonetheless, Pippen's presence, virtual or actual, had Garnett thinking too much, and he never got a shooting rhythm all afternoon.

"Scottie ... he's a veteran and he knows how to react to this (playoff pressure)," Garnett said. "He was everywhere, and I did a poor job of taking my time to pick apart the defense. He was leaving Wally, and I should have handled it better."

Despite Garnett's off night shooting, the Timberwolves still maintained a lead anywhere from one to six points throughout the second half until the final 5:16 of the game. Minnesota point guard Terrell Brandon, a Portland native, was confident and effective into the fourth quarter, finishing with 17 points and 12 assists. It was apparent the Wolves weren't intimidated and shouldn't have been considering they had beaten the Blazers in their past two meetings. Besides, since the first of March, the Timberwolves have been 18-8 and the Blazers 14-11 despite having won nine more regular season games.

But when Greg Anthony entered the game as a defensive replacement for Damon Stoudamire (who had 18 points) at point guard, he got to Brandon. He forced an offensive foul on Brandon with 9:09 left that began to change the momentum and set off a 16-5 run down the stretch that erased the 77-71 Minnesota lead and put the game away.

After shooting 54 percent the first three quarters as they worked for the open shot and proved why they are the second-best shooting team in the NBA (behind the Blazers), the Wolves became rattled by the defense as Anthony eradicated the comfort zone for Brandon.

And when forward Rasheed Wallace took a slick feed from Arvydas Sabonis in the post and turned a reverse layup into a 3-point play, it was over. The play produced an 81-79 Portland lead, its first in the second half since the opening 13 seconds. Pippen scored six of the Blazers' final eight points, again going to the basket at warp speed.

"He was in attack mode throughout the game," Blazers coach Mike Dunleavy said. "They put different people on him, but he was still attacking. He got our guys going and taking the ball to the basket with authority. He was much more aggressive than he had been in (regular season) games. He had three dunks in traffic that were spectacular."

Scottie Pippen fills his role for the Blazers in the first game of their series against Minnesota. (AP)

Pippen was marvelous from the outset, asserting himself on both ends of the floor as the Blazers opened up a double-figure lead in the opening period. He was particularly aggressive going to the hole, dunking over Szczerbiak and 7-foot Radoslav Nesterovic. By halftime, he had 18 of the 48 Portland points as the Blazers clung to a one-point lead.

Garnett scored four of his eight first-half points in the final 24 seconds of the half on a couple of jumpers, the Blazers aggressively double-teaming him every time he touched the ball. The only way the Wolves stayed in the game was the exceptional play of Brandon, who had 10 points and seven assists in the half despite foul trouble in the opening quarter that allowed the Blazers to pull away.

But it was clear the Wolves weren't intimidated, and they were seemingly in control of the game until the Blazers defense turned up its intensity in the fourth quarter, led by Anthony and Pippen. It would remiss to ignore all of the bizarre calls that included a technical on Wallace (he had an NBA-record 38 this season) when he reportedly yelled, "Break his arm next time," three times to teammate Brian Grant in the first quarter.

No call was more vital than what happened to Garnett in the fourth quarter. Wallace, who had 15 points, five rebounds and a couple of blocks, was initially called for fouling Garnett with 7:13 by Hugh Evans. Then Mike Mathis stunningly came from midcourt to overrule Evans and call it an offensive foul. Moments later, Garnett picked up his fourth foul and the Wolves were dazed and ultimately dead, going 5:10 without a field goal and scoring just 13 points in the fourth quarter, a playoff-record low for Blazers opponents.

"In the course of the game, the officials will make certain calls, but you have to learn to play through them," Garnett said. "I try not to dwell on certain calls and let the officials dictate how we play, but that call seemed to take the air out of our sails."

The wind, too. But mostly it was Pippen, whose extendo-man body had his arms and hands on everything throughout the game.

"Pippen was unbelievable," Wolves coach Flip Saunders said. "They got him for just this situation ... for his playoff experience. He was terrific. He was able to lead the team and he got them off offensively and defensively."

Playoff Basketball Procedure 101, Professor Scottie Pippen presiding.