Game Story
You’re still awake?
If you are, kudos to you. You’re a true diehard. If not, we don’t blame you. By the time the final buzzer sounded, the clock struck 12:38 a.m. Central.
The Los Angeles Lakers came into the night winners in five of their last six games. One of the areas they’ve excelled in has been shooting the ball, reaching second in the league in effective field goal percentage (58.8%), and first from deep (40.6%).
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Regression hit like a ton of bricks.
On a night where ridiculous scoring feats could be found in any game, Los Angeles and the Minnesota Timberwolves decided to treat the packed home crowd to a good old fashioned brick-fest. The Lakers, in particular, opened the game scoreless in the first four and a half minutes. The audience groaned and moaned as their team missed their first 11 three-point attempts, anchoring them to just 28% from the field in the first quarter.
The Timberwolves weren’t much better. Instead of taking advantage of the frigid shooting display of their opponents, they decided to be gentlemen and convert on only 34.8% of their own shot attempts in that same stanza. Look no further than Anthony Edwards and Luka Dončić, who have both averaged over 32 points in their last three games, but combined to score just seven points on three of 18 shooting in the quarter.
A modest five-point Timberwolves lead after the first buzzer sounded was short-lived and seemed ominous.
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The non-Dončić minutes boded well for Los Angeles. They battled back strictly off hammering the offensive glass (11 in first half) and opting to score in the paint (62% of points in paint in first half). DeAndre Ayton did his best Clint Capela impression, accounting for a ton of that by outworking the Wolves in the paint. He bought enough time for his Slovenian teammate to catch a groove, as Dončić converted a few triples before finding Rui Hachimura to swish a trey of his own to knot things up at 45 at the halftime break.
It was surely a half where both teams seemed asleep.
After scoring just three points in the first half, things didn’t look great to start the second for Edwards. He struggled to find a rhythm and took a tough tumble on a charge drawn by Marcus Smart. It was just foreshadowing of the face plant that the Wolves had coming. Despite a flurry of free throws, Edwards shot an uncharacteristic 13% mark from field. A low mark from him since he shot 23.1% against…
…the Los Angeles Lakers in 2024. Talk about regression to the mean.
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His rough night seemed to suck the energy from his teammates. Edwards certainly wasn’t the only guilty party. The Wolves roster as a whole was just far too forgiving to a team missing several rotation players. They had many poorly timed fouls, late shot clock resignations, and forgotten rotations which allowed the Lakers to find their rhythm.
One player that struggled to find their range lately was Austin Reaves. The man who slayed the Wolves with a walk-off game-winner almost five months ago had only scored 20+ points just once in his last eight games, shooting in the a low 40% from the field. Unfortunately for Minnesota, that one game was two days ago. Reaves rode that momentum tonight, slaughtering Minnesota with haymaker after haymaker, opening up a 19-point deficit that the Wolves never threatened again.
It was oddly similar to Minnesota’s second game of the season, where Los Angeles cruised to an easy victory in the third quarter, filled with a ton of highlights to boot. Except they didn’t even need Dončić to score 49.
At this point, it’s more than fair to be critical of the Wolves performance. This wasn’t an early tip against a subpar Eastern Conference team. This was a prime time matchup in a packed house against a team vying with them for playoff positioning. And they shit the bed.
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Again.
If anything, it’s even more concerning in a game where Anthony Edwards was successfully game planned out, the team looked completely unprepared on how to respond. This will be the case often in the playoffs. Will Edwards shoot this bad all the time? No. But they clearly did not have any answers when he did shoot poorly. There were some silver linings like the bench performance and a half-decent Julius Randle game, but it all just felt like a big blurry haze.
Anyway, hopefully you weren’t awake to watch this one.
Clearly the Wolves weren’t awake either.
Box Score
Comment of the Night
Live look at the Timberwolves tonight
Up Next
It’s a short turnaround for Minnesota. In fact, in less than 24 hours, they’ll take to the court just 25 miles south at Intuit Dome. The surging Los Angeles Clippers play host on Wednesday, March 11, at 9:30 PM CT. The last time these teams met, Anthony Edwards shouted at Chris Finch after a clutch three pointer, edging out LA who was missing both Kawhi Leonard and Darius Garland.
This game will be broadcast on FanDuel Sports Network.