The anticipation for Luka Doncic’s first playoff game with the Lakers at Crypto.com Arena was palpable. The end result was deflating. Despite Doncic’s 37 points, the Lakers were blown out 117-95 by the Minnesota Timberwolves in Game 1 of the NBA Playoffs Saturday night.
The Lakers dared the Timberwolves role players to shoot, and they did just that. Overall, Minnesota was a scorching 50% (21/42) from 3-point range. Jaden McDaniels tied his playoff career-high with 25 points, on 11/13 field goals and 3/3 on 3-point field goals. Naz Reid, a former 6th man of the year, had 23 points off the bench, and made 6 of 9 from beyond the arc. The Lakers bench was outscored 43-13.
After an initial burst and a 27-20 first quarter lead, the Lakers were blitzed in the second quarter, getting outscored 38-20 and never cutting the deficit to single digits the rest of the 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, but I’m not sure physically we were ready,” Lakers head coach JJ Redick said after the game. “When they started playing with a lot of thrust and physicality, we just didn’t respond immediately to that and in that stretch from the start of the second (quarter) through four or five minutes to go in the third (quarter), we lost that stretch by 34 and that’s a blowout.”
The Lakers walled off Wolves star Anthony Edwards from driving, but Edwards trusted his teammates, dished out nine assists and still managed to score 22 points.
Minnesota, the sixth seed in the Western Conference, was the tougher, faster, stronger team on both ends of the court. They outscored the third-seeded Lakers 25-6 in fastbreak points, they dominated in the paint 44-32 and they won the rebounding battle 44-38.
Doncic was efficient with his scoring but only had one assist, tying a career playoff low. The only other time Doncic had a single assist in a playoff game was in Game 1 of the NBA Finals against the Celtics last season. “One assist is not good enough for me,” Doncic said.
LeBron James had 19 points on 8/18 field goals to go along with just three assists. “Obviously we have to do a better job of controlling the controllables and I don’t think we did a good enough job after the first quarter,” James said.
The third member of the Lakers top trio, Austin Reaves didn’t play his best game either, scoring 16 points on 5 of 13 from the field and had just 2 points in the first half. “I have to be better,” Reaves said. “I have to help us control the game better. I’ll watch the film and get better.”
With Game 2 of the best-of-seven series coming up on Tuesday night in Los Angeles, the discussion in the locker postgame turned to bouncing back. “The mood was you don’t win or lose it through one game,” Reaves said.