Los Angeles, CA—(The Bulletin) The Los Angeles Lakers opened the playoffs by getting dominated by the Minnesota Timberwolves. After the first quarter, when the Lakers held the lead, they could not match the Timberwolves’ aggression and intensity.
The Timberwolves came out and made a statement victory in an upset by taking game one.
Starting off in Game 1 of a seven-game playoff series, the home team is expected to protect their home court, but the Lakers did no such thing. Lakers superstar Luka Doncic got off to a hot start and carried the Lakers in the first quarter. Doncic scored 16 points out of a total of 28 team points in the first quarter as the Lakers finished the quarter leading 28-21.
Other Lakers stars Lebron James and Austin Reaves were surprisingly scoreless after the first quarter. No one tagged along to help build the lead with Doncic. With no other consistent scoring punch, the Timberwolves began to take over.
The Timberwolves took the lead in the second quarter and never looked back. Taking over the game with their physicality and aggression, the Lakers were unable to respond. “I’m not sure physically we were ready… when they started playing with a lot of thrust and physicality, we didn’t respond immediately to that,” said Lakers head coach JJ Reddick.
Led by their intensity, the Timberwolves were hot from the three-point line. For the game, they shot 50 percent from the three-point line, making 21 out of 42 attempts. They completely shot the Lakers out of their own building and turned the game upside down with their physical play.
Offensively, the Lakers had a rough night. Besides Doncic, there was no consistency. James and Reaves both found some sort of rhythm in the second half, but by then, the hole was too big to dig themselves out of. Besides the stars for the Lakers, there was not another player to even reach double-digit scoring.
With such a poor offensive start, it affected the defense for the Lakers as well. “They went on a run to start the quarter and we couldn’t get a bucket and that affected us on both ends… they are gonna be physical. We have to do a better job rebounding, we gave up too many second-chance points,” said Reaves.
Minnesota is a bigger team size-wise compared to the Lakers, and they definitely used that to their advantage. The Timberwolves hunted matchups by putting their bigs in good positions and dominating the glass.
It was Utter dominance in almost every facet of the game. Minnesota’s star player, Anthony Edwards, only had 22 points. It was team dominance by the Timberwolves, and the Lakers could not match their energy.
Game one goes to the Minnesota Timberwolves as the road team in an emphatic win. Pressure is now on the Lakers to not only bounce back, but to protect home court and avoid losing two games at home.
This article appears courtesy of The Bulletin, an editorial partner of News4usOnline
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