Still a month away from his 24th birthday, he this season became the ninth player in NBA history to average at least 20 points, 10 rebounds and five assists. Having never won an NBA playoff series -- or a Game 1 in their only other three trips to the playoffs in franchise history -- it was natural for him to be a bit down after he and the Minnesota Timberwolves handed over a three-point decision to the Portland Trail Blazers.

After all, in their three previous series, the opening losses were by an average of 18.3 points a game. Garnett, who already has gained a reputation for taking defeat harder than most ("He's a basket case after every loss," coach Flip Saunders said), quoted Earvin Johnson, saying, "It's like Magic said, whether you get beat by 30 or by one, it's still a loss."

But this was different. Garnett wasn't angry. He didn't look upset as much as bewildered, much as he was throughout Sunday's game. Fittingly, during the postgame press conference, the microphones became balky, and he wasn't sure which one to use. "It's been a confusing day," he said, breaking into that endearing megawatt smile.

Give credit to the Blazers for throwing out a variety of tall players and different double-teams to confuse this incredibly gifted young 7-footer. Still, the stakes are going up, and so are his responsibilities. He is now considered a top-five player in the NBA, and even with his triple-double, 6-for-20 shooting and 12 points only tell a portion of the story.

Blazers superstar Scottie Pippen, who dominated the game, gave a lot of credit to the Timberwolves as an exceptional team, offering the ultimate compliment by comparing them to the Utah Jazz when it comes to offensive execution.

That's more directed toward Saunders and point guard Terrell Brandon.

It's up to Garnett to win the big games. And he's not going to do it floating backward, which is what he did most of the day. He had two field goals in the second half, one a 15-footer from the baseline, the other an 18-foot jumper from the wing. Garnett failing to score in the final 10:30 of a close game is like Babe Ruth taking three strikes in the bottom of the ninth inning with the bases loaded and two outs.

"We put ourselves in a position to win a game ... that's what the playoffs are all about," Garnett said. "Coming down the stretch, it always seems like we're in a position to win the game, but for some strange reason, we always don't come through."

That was youth talking about his own team, which put together an astonishing 40-4 record this season when leading after three quarters. Suddenly, after all this talk about his rapid ascension among the NBA's elite -- after going there directly from high school -- we forgot how young he is. Yes, he has extraordinary skills, works extremely hard and is a joy to be around. That's an unusual trifecta in this day and age of professional sports.

What Garnett is talking about now is how they measure up to the best teams in the NBA, not how they play at the end of games. The T-Wolves do execute well, had the second-highest shooting percentage in the NBA this season and finished 43-19 after a horrid 7-13 start -- the second best record in the NBA behind the Lakers over the final 62 games of the season.

Garnett's frustration is steeped in his own inability to figure out how to carry his team up a notch right now. With youngsters like Wally Szczerbiak and Radoslav Nesterovic in the starting lineup, it's still going to take time. But no teams win playoff games if their star players shoot zero free throws, and Brandon didn't get there, either.

"When Garnett, Szczerbiak and Brandon didn't get to the free-throw line, we were in trouble," Saunders said. "That hurts us, sure. We are a jump-shooting team."

If Garnett's improved shooting range is a blessing, it also is bit of a curse. With his size and skill level, he has to become a low-post presence and get to the foul line. The executive vice president of the Wolves is Kevin McHale, one of the best low-post scorers in the history of the NBA. Although Garnett's long and sleek -- yet sinewy -- frame has not quite filled out and is not built for pounding inside, ultimately that's where they need him to play.

Kevin Garnett has to step up his game in the playoffs if the Timberwolves are to advance.(Allsport)

Garnett and all the Timberwolves seemed a little taken aback by the intensity of Pippen and the Blazers, even if Minnesota did lead nearly the entire second half. At crunch time, Pippen, the crowd and the officials all seemed to engulf Garnett.

"I didn't expect to come in here and get roses thrown at me," Garnett said. "At times, it was just me being impatient. I was just trying to be aggressive. I need to watch film, see where I made mistakes and hopefully, I won't make the same mistakes.

"In the fourth quarter, I tried to step it up and be more aggressive, try to (draw) some fouls and get in the bonus. But it didn't work that way. Flip says it all the time, sometimes your strengths are your weaknesses."

In the case of Kevin Garnett, that's exactly the case. With his size, touch and athleticism, shooting from the perimeter on a consistent basis is a waste. Soon enough, he'll be in the post, probably not doing a thousand arm and leg movements like McHale, but quickly enough and strong enough to score and draw fouls. But until then, we'll just have to be patient, too, and marvel at everything else he does so well.

Playoff Perspective

Glancing through the first weekend of playoff games, it was hard not to arrive at some conclusions, even if we're only one game into the postseason.

It would be a shame if the Knicks and Pacers didn't meet in the Eastern Conference Finals. Both teams are very deep, very old and eminently capable of blowing any size lead they can build in the first half of a game. They've played 25 playoff games against each other since the 1993-94 season, with the Pacers holding a 13-12 margin, and they've become so much alike, it's almost as if they've been built as mirror images.

Expect the Knicks to struggle with the Raptors and win, with the Pacers doing the same with the Bucks.

The second round will be a different issue, with the Knicks likely to meet their schoolyard nemesis, the Miami Heat. And it now looks like former Pacers coach Larry Brown (OK, he's the former coach of a lot of teams), will bring his Sixers past the dangerous but unaccomplished Charlotte Hornets.

The Heat-Pistons series promises to be the most boring of any of the first-round matchups, with the Pistons' Grant Hill playing on a badly bruised foot, and Heat point guard Tim Hardaway so similarly hobbled by foot problems, he can't even play.

Then again, the Spurs are playing without Tim Duncan again while the torn cartilage in his left knee continues to mend, but the Suns managed to beat them without Jason Kidd, Tom Gugliotta and Rex Chapman. (If the 72-70 Suns victory sounds exciting ... it wasn't.) The ramifications of this series for the Spurs are endless, especially if Duncan doesn't come back and they lose. Will he consider leaving the Spurs as a free agent? If he does, will David Robinson retire? Then what do the Spurs have left? And they just got their new arena approved.

Karl Malone, soon to be 37, became the oldest NBA player to score 50 points in a playoff game when the Jazz beat the Sonics Saturday. Most people believe the second-seeded Jazz with their consistent regimentation could cause problems in the West -- of course, that's why they earned the second seed in the first place. The Sonics will either challenge them -- provided Gary Payton hasn't run out of gas -- or the Jazz will sweep them. If that happens, any number of things could happen to alter the future of the team, from management to a major trade.

The Shaquille O'Neal playing now is the one everybody was afraid of when he entered the NBA in 1992; it just required Phil Jackson becoming coach of the Lakers to flip the switch. His 46 points, 17 rebounds and five blocks in the victory over the Kings Sunday was about as dominant a performance by a center in a playoff game anyone could remember since Hakeem Olajuwon had 49 points, 25 rebounds and seven blocks in a double-overtime loss to the Sonics in Game 6 of the 1987 Western Conference semifinals. But look for Jackson to do some funky maneuvers just to cause some emotion to fly in one of the next two games.

Shots from the perimeter

• Isiah Thomas has been building a house in the Atlanta area, prompting speculation that he wants to coach the Hawks, but it also is the new home of the Continental Basketball Assocation, which he owns and must sell if he plans on coaching in the NBA. Tubby Smith and Mike Jarvis are two hot names out of the college ranks that are being tossed around. Cincinnati coach Bob Huggins has adamantly denied he is interested in the NBA, but his name keeps showing up. Hmmm ...
• Sixers GM Billy King apologized to Allen Iverson after telling a reporter there were problems in the long-range relationship between Iverson and the team on the eve of the playoffs. Considering the timing and the repercussions of that kind of conversation, King's faux pas was far worse than anything Iverson has pulled this season.
• Tracy McGrady looks more and more like Pippen. Who is more likely to be back in Toronto next season, McGrady or coach Butch Carter? And this is just a rhetorical question Butch, not defamation of character.
• What do the Cavs, Celtics and Wizards have in common? The desire to make some major personnel moves with huge contracts that are nearly impossible to move. We're still holding out for that Shawn Kemp-Juwan Howard trade. Are the Celtics willing to move their most talented but perturbing player, Antoine Walker, just for the sake of altering their cap and chemistry?
• What's with all this clatter about wanting Don Nelson to return as coach of the Mavericks. Indeed, their spectacular run at the end of the season gives them their best record (40-42) since the 1989-90 season, and one more victory than the previous two seasons combined. But this is the same guy who turned the team over in 1997, then blamed coach Jim Cleamons for their pitiful showing with his players and fired him 16 games into the next season. Sure, the players are talking up Nellie to come back, if only because he will be general manager anyway. The only difference now is the positive energy infused by new owner Mark Cuban. Michael Finley and Dirk Nowitzki are terrific young players.
• Will the Rockets really buy out the last year of Olajuwon's contract? He is virtually finished anyway.
• With Stan Kroenke buying the Nuggets, the Pepsi Center and the Avalanche for $450 million, some might think that would translate into the Nuggets finally altering the structure of their team. Don't count on it. They will be $10 million over the salary cap, and coach/general manager Dan Issel wants the players he has to stick around for continuity.