SALT LAKE CITY (Ticker) -- The absence of Kevin Garnett did not seem to faze the Minnesota Timberwolves until the final minutes.
Matt Harpring scored 10 of his 32 points in the fourth quarter and Greg Ostertag collected 12 points, a career-high 21 rebounds and five blocks as the Utah Jazz rallied for a 93-88 victory over the Timberwolves.
Minnesota was dealt a huge blow midway through the second quarter, when Garnett was ejected for arguing, receiving a pair of technicals. He threw a ball into the crowd after he was tossed.
"I tried to talk to the ref in the right kind of way and present myself real respectable but maybe he didn't see it that way," Garnett said. "I'm just upset that I let my team down."
"(Garnett) is an emotional ballplayer," Minnesota point guard Sam Cassell said. "I think he got caught up in his emotions today. We've got to live with that, he's our leader."
The Timberwolves were trailing by nine at the time but quickly rallied and led most of the second half.
Minnesota had a 74-67 edge with 9:35 remaining before Utah scored 15 of the next 18 points. The Jazz took the lead after the Timberwolves' Gary Trent was whistled for a flagrant foul with 5:17 remaining.
Andrei Kirilenko sank both ensuing free throws and added two more after getting fouled 12 seconds later to five Utah an 80-77 edge with 5:05 to go.
"Our guys hung in there," Utah coach Jerry Sloan said. "We were down seven points in the fourth quarter and our guys just kept playing and giving themselves a chance. When you have as many guys as we did play good, then you have a chance."
Harpring capped the burst with a fast-break layup and buried a pair of jumpers in the final four minutes as Utah held on for its second win in three games.
While Cassell was the only player producing down the stretch for Minnesota, Utah received contributions from numerous players, including 15 points and eight assists from Raul Lopez.
"The most important thing is we had a lot of guys play well," Sloan said. "It's the fact that we played well together. Whoever is out there has got to do their job. We don't have the luxury not to."
Minnesota struggled down the stretch without Garnett and was dominated inside by Ostertag. He severely outplayed Timberwolves center Michael Olowokandi, who had just two points on 1-of-8 shooting in 29 minutes.
Ostertag followed his own shot with two minutes remaining and added another layup with 27 seconds to go. He grabbed a career-high 13 offensive rebounds and helped the Jazz to an overwhelming 53-33 rebounding advantage.
Harpring had 10 rebounds, including five of Utah's 29 offensive boards.
Cassell scored 12 of his 27 points in the final six minutes and had 10 assists. He was the only Minnesota player to score in the final 9 1/2 minutes until Trenton Hassell made a meaningless layup in the final seconds.
"We put ourselves in a damn good situation to win this ballgame," Cassell said. "We've got to do a little bit more when Kevin is out of the game. We drastically missed his presence out there."
"It was a very frustrating night," Garnett said. "The ref wasn't the biggest thing, we got outrebounded and we lost the game. It's just not a good night."
Latrell Sprewell had 24 points but did not score in the fourth quarter for the Timberwolves, who have lost 25 of 31 all-time meetings against the Jazz.
"Latrell and myself tried to control the game, but when you get outrebounded the way we did, you don't win games like that," Cassell said. "It was difficult because we have an inside-outside attack and it became the Latrell and Sam attack. It's fun, but Spree and myself dont want to play like that."
