Lakers 99, Wolves 94

Eight-and-oh, but hardly perfect. The Lakers hard their share of flaws during their victory tonight over the Minnesota Timberwolves. They didn’t play with enough effort to please Phil Jackson, who gave the team the day off Monday and figured a clunker might be in the works. Kobe Bryant didn’t sound too concerned after scoring a season-high 33 points. “We don’t take much out of it,” he said after making 12 of 28 shots. “The regular season is just about powering enough wins, just trying to get better, and tonight we did that.” Former UCLA standout Kevin Love scored 23 points and grabbed a career-high 24 rebounds, but the Timberwolves still lost their sixth consecutive game and fell to 1-7 to start the season.