MINNEAPOLIS (NBA.com exclusive) --  Of course the point guard matchup made all the difference Wednesday night. It makes perfect sense: When one team puts the ball in the hands of an All-Star, and the other crosses its fingers and lets a 20-year-old rookie making his professional debut orchestrate the offense, of course the final score will reflect that showdown.

Hey, wait a minute ...

Jonny Flynn thrilled the Timberwolves with a dynamite Opening Night performance, guiding one of the largest comebacks in Minnesota history and outplaying Nets veteran Devin Harris to earn a shocking 95-93 victory over New Jersey at Target Center. Flynn scored 11 points during Minnesota's 24-6 run over the final six minutes, and though his driving layup on the game's final possession rolled out, teammate Damien Wilkins grabbed the loose ball and banked in a 10-foot shot as time expired, shocking a New Jersey team that blew a 19-point second-half lead.

"He showed me he has a lot of heart," Wilkins said of his rookie teammate, who led the Timberwolves with 18 points. "Jonny Flynn, he's a winner."

So is his team, which won its season opener for the eighth time in nine seasons -- this one perhaps the most improbable of all. New Jersey capitalized on its size advantage inside to hold Minnesota to 36.6 percent shooting on the night and build a 72-53 lead midway through the third quarter. The Nets still led by 16, 87-71, with seven minutes to play.

"We couldn't find a way to get our defense organized for much of the night," said Wolves coach Kurt Rambis. "Our weak-side defense, we couldn't get guys to come over and help."

Rambis said Brook Lopez often rolled to the basket unguarded and the second-year center led all scorers with 27 points on 11-for-19 shooting to go with his 15 rebounds. And when Lopez wasn't dominating under the basket (and getting Wolves' forward Al Jefferson into early foul trouble), 7-footer Yi Jianlian took over, adding 17 points and 12 rebounds.

"They had things going the way they wanted," Rambis said.

Until Flynn took over, they did. But the rookie point guard, drafted sixth by Minnesota in June, helped the Wolves crank up the defense in the final seven minutes -- New Jersey went 1-for-9 from the field over that span, going more than six minutes without a hoop -- by forcing five Nets turnovers.

"We put ourselves in that predicament," Nets coach Lawrence Frank said. "These are hard lessons, but the lesson tonight is to maintain your poise. Obviously, we didn't."

Meanwhile, Flynn had the Wolves, who were making only 32 percent of their shots at the time, forcing the tempo and getting transition baskets or drawing fouls. Flynn challenged the 7-footers himself, and went to the line eight times in the game's final 4:28, making seven of them.

"You can't be scared. You can't be scared of anything," said Flynn, who outscored Harris, an Eastern Conference All-Star, 11-2 during Minnesota's decisive run. "We've identified ourselves as a scrappy team."

And Flynn apparently its new leader. After Harris made a bank shot with 18.5 seconds to play, tying the score 93-93, Rambis called time out, and made a telling decision: Give the ball to the rookie.

"I felt it was important to show him I have confidence in his decision-making," Rambis said.

Not a bad decision by the coach, either. Flynn ran the clock down to eight seconds, faked Harris into a Jefferson screen, and raced down the lane, floating a six-footer that hit the back of the rim. Corey Brewer and Jefferson fumbled for the rebound, which ended up in Wilkins' hands along the baseline.

"I thought, 'Just get it on the glass. Quick, quick,' " said Wilkins, who had 12 points but only that one basket after halftime. "When I let it go, the angle it was hitting, I thought, 'That may go.' "

It did, and after an officials' review to confirm it left Wilkins' hands in time, the Timberwolves had their seventh straight homecourt win over the luckless Nets.

"When things went bad, everyone tried to take on the world by himself," Frank grumbled. "We didn't trust our teammates."

Not the way the Wolves trusted Flynn, anyway.