Lakers First Round Playoff Series Set, Will Face Off Against Timberwolves

The Los Angeles Lakers will host the Minnesota Timberwolves for the first round of the 2025 playoffs.

The Lakers, the No. 3 seed in the West, will start Game 1 of the first round against the Timberwolves, who clinched the No. 6 seed in the West on Sunday.

There were several potential outcomes heading into the final stretch, but with victories by the Denver Nuggets, Los Angeles Clippers, and Minnesota Timberwolves, the path has become clear—Minnesota will ultimately land as the No. 6 seed.

The Timberwolves defeated the lowly Utah Jazz, who have been jockeying for the last few months for the best position to secure the No. 1 pick in the draft lottery next month.

The Clippers beat the Warriors in overtime in a thriller at the season finale. The Nuggets blew out the Rockets in a game they were in control of from the start.

The Lakers secured the No. 3 seed on Friday after their win over the Houston Rockets. They took Sunday's game against the Portland Trail Blazers off as they were without Luka Doncic, LeBron James, Austin Reaves, and Rui Hachimura.

All the Lakers were doing was waiting for their opponent, and now they will be hosting Minnesota on either April 19 or April 20 at Crypto.com Arena.

The Lakers went 2-2 in the season series against the Timberwolves. Three of the four matchups occurred before the Doncic trade. The two met in the first game of the regular season, and we saw the first father-son duo to play on the same court with the same team, Bronny, and LeBron James.

L.A. came out on top in that matchup.

The next two matchups were at Minneapolis, and the Lakers struggled mightily on the offensive end in both contests. The two games occurred over 11 days, and in both of those games, the Lakers failed to reach 90 points.

In those two games at the Target Center, the Lakers had a combined 41 turnovers. Their lack of offense and failure to control the ball led to their two losses.

The last matchup between the two was in late February. The Lakers took care of business against a somewhat hobbled Minnesota team then.

The Timberwolves were without Julius Randle and Rudy Gobert, arguably their second and third-best players. Nonetheless, the Lakers did what they should do and beat the Wolves.

This time, the two teams will enter this series healthy, and we should be in for a good one. For the first time since the 2012 playoffs, L.A. will have home-court advantage in a series.

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