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Kings-Wolves: 56k | 300k 
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Last year's MVP runner-up to Tim Duncan and again among the leading candidates, Garnett posted his 16th straight double-double and sixth 20-20 game of the season. The NBA's rebounding leader gave Minnesota an overwhelming 60-34 advantage on the glass.
"I just wanted to come out aggressive," Garnett said. "When you're in the flow, it can be a defensive flow, an offensive flow, or it can be a rebounding flow. I was in a flow that I saw every rebound and where it was going, and just wanted it and went and got it."
Garnett's presence in the paint also rattled the Kings, who lead the NBA in scoring and shooting. They missed a half-dozen layups and all eight 3-pointers in the first half, falling into a 43-34 hole.
Szczerbiak, a sweet-shooting swingman, missed the first 53 games of the season with a strained plantar fascia tendon in his left foot. He came off the bench in the second quarter and had a pair of buckets.
"The first three possessions, it was boom-boom, boom-boom," Szczerbiak said. "I was like, 'Wow, this is moving pretty fast.' But after that, I was fine. I got my wind, and it felt really good in the second half."
Szczerbiak also had a layup with 7:21 left that gave Minnesota a 74-68 lead and began a decisive 11-2 run. Amid chants of "MVP," Garnett capped the surge by finding Sam Cassell for a 3-pointer, making a short bank shot and sinking two free throws for an 83-70 bulge with 4:18 to go.
Cassell scored 18 points for the Timberwolves (39-15), who moved within percentage points of the Kings (38-14) for the league's best record and home-court advantage throughout the playoffs.
"They're a team that shoots 48, 49 percent from the field and averages 105 a game," Minnesota coach Flip Saunders said. "When you hold a team 30 points below their average, you know you're doing something right."
All-Star Peja Stojakovic scored a pedestrian 15 points for Sacramento, which shot under 34 percent (30-of-89) and was held to its lowest total of the season. It had a four-game winning streak snapped.
"When you shoot 33 percent, the other team is going to get a lot more rebounds than you, especially when you're not a great offensive rebounding team to begin with," Kings coach Rick Adelman said.
The teams had gone to overtime their last four meetings, an NBA record. But the Wolves never trailed in this one, shooting 45.5 percent (35-of-77) overall and holding the Kings to 15 points in the fourth quarter.