Lakers Strung ‘Wolves Along Just for Laughs

I don’t know about you, but I had this series pegged to go six games almost from day one.

I did my homework, sweeping aside all the stuff I was hearing from amateur prognosticators, and while at times I might have sounded more bullish, deep down I figured the series would go six because the Lakers’ four Hall of Famers would have to start against the likes of Michael Olowokandi, Trenton Hassell and Darrick Martin.

Just as I feared and as Phil Jackson noted the other day, the laughter got to our guys in the locker room and cost the Lakers two games.

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NO ONE is complaining, of course, because the corn won’t be ready to shuck until some time after July 4, so why not give the yahoos stuck in the hinterlands a little extra entertainment and another long-distance shot of the Hollywood sign. Let them dream.

As for the Lakers, if they were going to lose one game, you know it had to be two -- NBA conspiracy or not, because that allowed the NBA’s biggest stars to celebrate in front of the celebrities here and in prime time on a national holiday. Ma & Pa middle America loves this kind of stuff.

The fact that the Timberwolves played their roles as plucky patsies almost to Oscar perfection made for great theater. The referees did their jobs too.

So everybody goes home happy. The Timberwolf cheerleaders can put the feedbags back on in preparation for winter, Minnesota can once again become a nondescript Midwest state and L.A. can begin making plans for yet another championship parade. There’s almost a certain Midwest comfort in maintaining the status quo.

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DESPITE THE flying confetti, the Lakers probably haven’t gotten the credit they deserve for their heroic efforts in pushing this series to six games against a much weaker team. I think it speaks to their desire to help the Dodgers, and for all we know, Monday’s Laker game just might have turned the Dodgers’ season around.

The Dodgers had plans for their manager and 17 players to attend Monday’s contest in Staples Center so they could see what it’s like to win a playoff game. I mean, how would they know? They’ve seen the grainy 1988 film that Tom Lasorda insists on showing over and over of the Dodgers’ last playoff victory, but today’s athletes like their sports shown in color.

Had the Lakers beaten Minnesota earlier, there would have been no game Monday, taking away any chance the Dodgers might’ve had to visualize playoff success and effectively ending their season.

But there was a Game 6, and it fired up the Dodgers. The Milwaukee Brewers had the Dodgers beat, 2-0, earlier Monday before it dawned on the guys that the folks at Staples later might put their faces up on the scoreboard.

How would it look across the country if everyone in L.A. was booing their baseball team after another shutout loss?

That explains why the Dodgers tied it in the bottom of the ninth and won it in the 10th. And that’s why this series just had to go six games.

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R.D. HUBBARD, former owner of Hollywood Park, was in his Staples Center seat just off the court. Last season Salma Hayek sat in the row in front of Hubbard; Monday night it was Dodger Manager Jim Tracy, which gives you an idea of how Hubbard’s luck is going as he heads off to the Belmont today to watch Smarty Jones run Saturday.

Tracy’s Dodgers pulled off a miracle to beat Milwaukee, and then he found himself directly behind Jeanie Buss to give you an idea how his luck is running.

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GOLFER PHIL MICKELSON had a courtside seat and was shown on TV, but there was no indication which team he was betting on, although I saw him shaking hands with Minnesota’s Oliver Miller at halftime.

With both Mickelson and Latrell Sprewell here -- you had two athletes known best for choking until Mickelson took care of that earlier this year.

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RAN INTO Tim Leiweke, Staples Center boss, who said he was the first employee (senior vice president) hired by the Timberwolves. He left Minnesota, and to think there were times when I thought he wasn’t capable of making smart moves.

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FOUR DODGERS will be asked to run up and down the aisles of an Albertsons in Burbank for three minutes collecting food for National Hunger Awareness Day on Tuesday. I understand why Eric Gagne, Jose Lima and David Ross were picked, but I’m still not convinced that Milton Bradley is going to run everything out.

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THE DODGER website asks: What’s the most impressive? Gagne’s 75 straight saves, DiMaggio’s 56-game hitting streak, Hershiser’s 59 scoreless innings, the 75 Dodger Dogs consumed each week by Nahan or Ripken’s 2,632 consecutive games played? OK, so I slipped in Stu Nahan’s name to see if you were awake -- obviously, there’s no way of knowing how many free hot dogs he eats in a week.

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DO YOU think Ken Griffey Jr. said to himself after passing Lou Gehrig in career home runs, “I consider myself the luckiest man on the face of the Earth?”

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TODAY’S LAST word comes in e-mail from Ddunlap:

“Is he out of his mind? [Organist] Nancy Bea Hefley, like Helen Dell and Don Beamsley before her, is part if the whole flavor of Dodger Stadium. It’s the tradition of it that [Frank] McCourt likes to talk about so much. That’s the dumbest decision I’ve ever heard [having her play less]. Maybe next he can find a nice, fresh, young voice to take over the TV responsibilities from that ‘older gentleman’ they have now.”

If there’s a nice, fresh, young voice with a Boston accent available ... don’t be surprised.

T.J. Simers can be reached at t.j.simers@latimes.com. To read previous columns by Simers, go to latimes.com/simers.