Lakers News: Timberwolves Defeat Lakers Again In Second Preseason Meeting
The Minnesota Timberwolves opted to bench their regular season starting frontcourt of Rudy Gobert and Karl-Anthony Towns tonight. Your Los Angeles Lakers, fielding pretty much their entire expected regular season rotation for the first three quarters of their matchup with Minnesota (this writer is dubious Troy Brown Jr. will see a lot of time), adjusted in a big (read: small ball) way, perhaps to their detriment. Ultimately, the Timberwolves did enough to grab the victory in Crypto.com Arena, winning 118-113.
This marked Minnesota's second win over Los Angeles during the 2022 preseason. Last week, the Timberwolves won 114-99 in a Las Vegas showcase, although for that matchup, Rudy Gobert played, and key Lakers LeBron James, Anthony Davis, Russell Westbrook, and Patrick Beverley all sat. All four of those players were available this time around. With tonight's loss, L.A. fell to a 1-4 preseason record.
Lakers head coach Darvin Ham trotted out a somewhat undersized starting lineup of Westbrook, Beverley, Lonnie Walker IV, James, and Davis. There were moments where Ham would employ four-guard lineups, which the Timberwolves feasted on immediately.
Mike Trudell of Lakers.com reports that, prior to the contest, Timberwolves head coach Chris Finch heaped high praise on Beverley, who served as the team's starting point guard in 2021-22.
“[From] Day 1, he basically told a young team they were able to win and make the playoffs… The confidence he gave to guys like Karl… being a really good pro. Every day, he had a habit, a routine… the competitive fire.”
With Gobert and KAT sitting, Finch instead started Kyle "Slow-Mo" Anderson at power forward and sharpshooting big man Naz Reid at center.
For the first quarter, Walker and James got cooking early, chipping in a combined 18 points on 8-of-11 shooting in the first quarter alone, with plenty of pull-up mid-range looks and inside takes. James also shot 1-of-2 from beyond the arc in the frame. Davis also chipped in seven points of his own, on 2-of-3 shooting from the field (but just 3-of-6 from the free-throw line). On the other side of the floor, Naz Reid and ex-Laker D'Angelo Russell led all Timberwolves in the frame, shooting a combined 5-of-8 from the floor and 2-of-4 from the charity stripe.
Both Walker and James also pulled off some solid drives.
Beverley proved how great a fit he could be on this team with an excellent defense-into-offense play, where he stripped the ball out of Minnesota shooting guard Jaylen Nowell's hands, then raced down the court to feed James for an easy dunk:
Walker exhibited high caliber court awareness, cutting to the middle to receive this feed from a swarmed Anthony Davis:
The two teams ultimately finished the chippy, high-scoring frame tied, 30-30, thanks to an off-balance baseline buzzer-beating fadeaway from the Brow:
AD has looked significantly more comfortable with his jump-shooting so far this preseason than he did during the second half of the 2021-22 season. Maybe recovering from that secret wrist injury is going to make a huge impact for 2022-23 after all.
James and Davis started to take over for L.A. in the second quarter, helping the Lakers carve out a 9-6 run. Then, a pair of unanswered triples from Reid and Russell helped put the Timberwolves up 42-39. After Ham substituted Walker out for Austin Reaves, the Timberwolves immediately went on an 11-2 run. Minnesota closed the period, and the half, leading 62-54.
A big part of the problem? L.A. had a miserable first half of three-point shooting, going a paltry 2-for-18 from deep (those two were made by James and Reaves, for the record). Minnesota went 8-for-20. James and Davis both had efficient shooting halves overall. Both players went 5-of-7 from the floor for 14 points apiece. Davis pulled down seven rebounds, dished out three assists, grabbed two steals, and made one block. James contributed six boards, a dime and a steal.
Davis had a respectable first half of basketball, made all the more impressive by the fact that he was playing with a wardrobe malfunction!
Los Angeles did its darnedest to make up the deficit in the third quarter, and at one moment, outscoring Minnesota 26-25, but the Timberwolves managed to hold onto their cumulative game lead all the same.
The Lakers' main rotation looked interesting through the first three quarters. James, Davis and Walker were the offensive standouts. In the third frame, Walker appeared to re-injure the ankle that had kept him limited during L.A.'s training camp and first couple preseason games. He left for the locker room and would not return. LeBron, who would ultimately finish an encouraging 2-of-4 from long range, looked especially crisp with this corner bucket:
Beverley and Westbrook, the other starters, went a mere 2-of-9 from the floor through their three quarters of action.
The Timberwolves headed into the final period up 87-80.
Ham pulled most of his starters and went to his deep bench for the final frame -- but he kept Beverley in for much of the period.
When it looked like the Timberwolves were about to run away with the game for the night, taking a 107-92 lead midway through the frame, a super-small lineup of Beverley, Austin Reaves, Max Christie, Cole Swider, and Damian Jones went on a 10-0 run to close the gap somewhat.
Two-way power forward Cole Swider did what he could to help L.A. late, chipping in 11 points on 3-of-8 shooting (2-of-6 from deep) and 3-of-3 shooting from the free-throw line.
Both James and Davis finished the night with impressively efficient double-doubles. James had 25 points on 9-of-12 shooting, 11 rebounds, three assists and a steal in 24:42 minutes. AD wrapped up with 19 points on 7-of-11 shooting, 13 rebounds, three assists, two steals and two blocks across 27:05 minutes. Only one other rotation Laker, Lonnie Walker, finished with double-digit scoring (12 points on 5-of-11 shooting from the field).
