Coming out of their Game 1 loss, the common theme for the Los Angeles Lakers was that they needed to match the physicality of the Minnesota Timberwolves in order to turn things around. When it comes to their offense, one thing the Lakers wanted to do was get in the paint more against this excellent Minnesota defense.
It worked in Game 2 as the Lakers matched the Timberwolves with 46 points in the paint and ultimately came out on top with a 94-85 win to tie the series. Luka Doncic again led the charge for the Lakers with 31 points, 12 rebounds and nine assists and, even though the Lakers were victorious, he still feels they can do a better job of attacking the paint.
“I think when we touch the paint, a lot of great things happen,” Luka said after the win. “Gets them into the blender. I think we gotta do that more. Obviously we talk about it, gotta touch the paint no matter what. That’s what we’re trying to do more and I think we can still do a lot more than that.”
The Lakers also did a better job of moving the ball with 23 assists in Game 2 which Doncic, again, attributed to the team’s ability to get in the paint.
“Yeah, I think when we touch the paint, it’s a lot of openings,” Doncic added. “Like I said, we gotta do that more and I think we shared the ball great today. We gotta keep doing that.”
Game 2 was a must-win for the Lakers and they came out and played like it with much better energy and physicality from start to finish. In fact that was the main difference as Doncic noted the Lakers didn’t change their overall gameplan, but simply matched the Timberwolves’ physicality.
“No. We did the same gameplan,” Luka said. “We didn’t really change much. It was just a question of if we were going to be more physical or not. I think we showed that, and we were there for 48 minutes, and we got big in the first quarter. We learned from the last game, and we just stuck to it.”
The Lakers got off to an even better start on Tuesday than they did in Game 1, but this time were able to keep the Timberwolves at bay. Even as their offense sputtered in the fourth quarter, the Lakers’ defense held up which Luka felt was impressive.
“They have a great team, so at some point they were going to make a run,” Luka said. “[It’s] just a matter of how we respond by being who we are. I think we responded very well. To win a game scoring 13 points in the fourth quarter is not easy. It was from defense and then going from there.”
Now it will be on the Lakers to maintain that energy as the team heads to Minnesota needing to take one of the next two games to retake home court advantage.
Lakers coach JJ Redick explains viral third quarter tirade
One of the biggest moments that came from the Lakers’ Game 2 victory was JJ Redick’s profanity-laced tirade in the third quarter after calling a timeout. But it wasn’t a matter of frustration as he would explain after the game.
Redick noted that he has done this in other games throughout the season and really wanted to turn his team’s sense of urgency back up while also ensuring the Lakers stayed organized.
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