For the first time in 13 years, the Los Angeles Lakers hosted Game 1 of a playoff series and the fans in attendance were loud when they took on the Minnesota Timberwolves.
The Lakers took control of the game early thanks to Luka Doncic thrilling the crowd with his scoring, but it was the Timberwolves that would go on to win Game 1 behind their defense and hot shooting from beyond the arc. Los Angeles was blown out 117-95 and now find themselves down 1-0 in the series and without home-court advantage.
Coming into the series, the Lakers considered the favorites, though Minnesota isn’t a normal No. 6 seed as they were a top-10 team on both sides of the floor and finished the regular season winning 17 of their final 21 games. Head coach JJ Redick knew that this series would be difficult, but it’s hard to imagine he thought his team would get run off the floor at home.
After the game, Redick noted that the Timberwolves’ run in the second quarter was fueled by the Lakers’ lack of transition defense and rebounding.
“The start of their run was [in] the transition and the second chance,” Redick said. “You look sort of in the effort offense areas for that. They had 25 fastbreak points, which that’s always skewed by the counter, so it’s more than that. [They had] 23 second-chance points. Schematics-wise in the half court, we’ll take a look at everything and see what we wanna tweak and all that. That’s hard to overcome, in particularly when a team’s shooting like they were shooting tonight.”
Redick also acknowledged that he felt like Los Angeles did a poor job playing through Minnesota’s physicality.
“Again, they’re a great opponent. They’re one of the best teams in basketball,” Redick said of the Timberwolves. “It’s not to say our guys weren’t ready to withstand a playoff-level basketball game. We were mentally ready. I thought our spirit was right. I thought even when they made runs, our huddles were great. The communication was great. I’m not sure physically we were ready, if that makes sense. Really, when they started playing with a lot of thrust and physicality, we just didn’t respond immediately to that. Then that stretch from the start of the second through four or five minutes to go into the third, we lost that stretch by 34. That’s a blowout.”
The Timberwolves may shoot a lot of 3-pointers, but they’re a tough team that relishes contact and can matchup either big or small. Their versatility as a group gave the Lakers fits offensively as everyone outside of Doncic looked out of sync.
Although it’s just one game, this is a poor way for the purple and gold to start a series. Not only are they now on their heels, the pressure is on for them to win Game 2 or else they’d find themselves in real trouble.
It’s hard to bet against a team that has LeBron James, Austin Reaves and Doncic on it, but Minnesota proved that they’re not going to lie down. If L.A. wants to win this series, they’re gonna have to be way better on both ends of the floor in Game 2.
Austin Reaves says Lakers are ready to go to war against Timberwolves
Austin Reaves had a rough Game 1 by his standard, but he’s done a good job of responding in the past. Prior to the start of the series, Reaves compared going up against the Timberwolves to going to war and the Lakers will need to embody that attitude for Game 2.
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