The efforts of high-profile acquisitions will likely define the NBA Playoff series between the Los Angeles Lakers and Minnesota Timberwolves.
Are all the king’s horses and all the king’s men enough to pacify the Wolves in the NBA Playoffs again?
That’ll be the headlining question of the Western Conference first round set between the Los Angeles Lakers and Minnesota Timberwolves, seeded third and sixth, respectively, in the upcoming series. It’s a matchup that carries the theme of iconic local veterans meshing with acquisitions from abroad, newcomers earned through both offseason and in-season means.
The Lakers’ season, of course, turned around when Luka Doncic was acquired in a shocking trade with the Dallas Mavericks. While that deal sacrificed 2020 champion Anthony Davis, LeBron James‘ Lakers (50-32) have undoubtedly turned the corner since the Slovenian star’s arrival. Los Angeles went 20-12 and shot up the leaderboard to third in the West, its best posting since the aforementioned 2020 title run in the Walt Disney World bubble. JJ Redick‘s first year at the helm also featured a breakout year from Austin Reaves (career-best 20.2 points per game) and James continuing to impress at age 40. Los Angeles re-upped with the architect of its current group shortly before tip-off, extending general manager/president of basketball operations Rob Pelinka.
Minnesota (49-33) generated its hype over the offseason, infamously dealing franchise face Karl-Anthony Towns to the New York Knicks in exchange for a package headlined by Donte DiVincenzo and Julius Randle. Early struggles had the Timberwolves lingering in the Play-In portions at the onset of the season, but they saved the best for last, going 17-4 between March and April to invade the bracket of automatic qualification. The antics of “Ant-Man” proved to be anything but miniscule, as Anthony Edwards‘ historic campaign placed him with the likes of Towns and Kevin Garnett in the Minnesota record books. He and Rudy Gobert will look to guide the Wolves back to the Western Conference Finals, as they reached the semifinal round for the first time in two decades last season.
Ironically, the Timberwolves fell to the Lakers in that prior matchup, as well as a first-round set in 2003. The two sides split this year’s four-game regular season set, with the last get-together being a 111-102 Laker victory on Feb. 27.
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Who: (3) Los Angeles Lakers vs. (6) Minnesota Timberwolves
What: NBA Playoffs, Western Conference, First Round
Where: Crypto.com Arena, Los Angeles/Target Center, Minneapolis
Winners: Season series tied 2-2
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Laker to Watch: LeBron James
Picking James, still embarking on game-changing efforts in his supposed twilight, in this instance feels like stating the obvious. But his size against the burly Timberwolves could be the x-factor of this series. Yes, trading an aging, ailing Davis for the surprise windfall of Doncic was the obvious right move, but it left the Lakers relatively depleted in the stature department. Jaxson Hayes still feels like a work in progress and Rui Hachimura is working off a late injury. That’ll put the primetime focus on James, who has been more than happy to accept such challenges, especially in a rebooted championship chase.
Wolf to Watch: Julius Randle
The fruits of the Towns trade on both sides were never meant to be reaped in the regular season. Swapping Towns for Randle and DiVincenzo probably wasn’t going to be the move that thrust the Wolves into the Finals, but it is expected to further the sense of postseason consistency they’ve established. For Randle, this postseason is particularly personal: injuries affected his last two visits (an ankle injury wiped out his participation in last year’s entirely) and he recently sang the praises of having a chance to “really play for something” now that he’s in Minneapolis. In his last postseason at full strength (2021), Randle drastically struggled and the tough effort against Atlanta (less than 30 percent from three-point range) has come to define his career to date. Facing the mighty Lakers (his original NBA employers) gives him a prime opportunity to reclaim his playoff narrative.
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What They’re Saying
“It’s not just me and LeBron. We have a great team around us; everybody helps us in so many ways. So if we want to win the championship, it’s going to take all of us … That’s our only goal. Think we have the team to do it.”-Luka Doncic (h/t Dave McMenamin, ESPN)
“It’s going to be a big series for Ant. He’s got to be able to grow up right in front of us and be able to handle what he’s about to experience. It’s going to be a lot of trying to get the ball out of his hands. They’re going to try to be smarter than us, they’re going to try to outwit us in a lot of different areas … “He’s got to be patient. He’s got to be able to be thinking ahead of the game. LeBron does it all the time. Ant, you’ve got to start looking at the second and third layer of things. Doing it for your teammates, doing it for yourself, make the game easier for yourself.”-Mike Conley (h/t Jon Krawczynski, The Athletic)
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Prediction
In some cases, there could be some benefits to turning your regular season into a de facto postseason preview like the Timberwolves did. Supposed Play-In fodder has held the inklings of championship contention and Minnesota’s late streaking has them on the shortlist for the title of “the one team no one wants to play in the spring.”
Most of those teams, however, more than likely never had to face James—and literally none of them had to face James and Doncic. What the Timberwolves have done can and should be respected. But it feels like they’ve exhausted so much energy to get to this point that besting a resurrected SoCal title chase feels like far too tall a task.
Lakers in 5
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Geoff Magliocchetti is on X @GeoffJMags
