LOS ANGELES — When the Minnesota Timberwolves wrapped up practice on the campus of UCLA on Saturday, Anthony Edwards brought the team together to deliver a message. They’d dominated the Los Angeles Lakers in Game 1 of their first-round series, but Edwards did not want the Wolves to be happy with a split. He wanted them to bear down, strike another blow and go back to Target Center with a 2-0 lead.
“I know they say in the playoffs you wanna steal one and steal home-court advantage, but we’re good enough to take two games,” Edwards told them. “So let’s be ready to play tomorrow. They’re gonna be ready, so we gotta be ready.”
The Wolves knew LeBron James, Luka Dončić and the Lakers would be ready to throw a major punch at the start of Tuesday’s Game 2. They would play desperately, because falling to 0-2 with both losses coming at home would be reason enough to fold up the tents.
The Wolves should have been ready for the Lakers to ramp up the physicality, forcing the officials to make calls over and over again. They should have known that Dončić was going to come out determined after Edwards rubbed it in a little bit during Minnesota’s romp on Saturday.
Instead, they looked to be caught flat-footed when Dončić and the Lakers came out firing in a 94-85 win. After getting shelled from 3-point range in Game 1, Los Angeles was engaged defensively, getting into the Timberwolves and betting that the officials would not blow their whistles every time down the court. And after picking up only one assist in Game 1, Dončić had nine of them in Game 2 to go with 31 points and 12 rebounds.
“Defensively, they picked up their intensity, things we expected,” said point guard Mike Conley, who was scoreless on 0-of-5 shooting in 21 minutes. “For whatever reason, we just didn’t match it. We didn’t come with the same level of aggression that we had in the first game. I think that led to a lot of mistakes on both ends of the floor.”
It was a disappointing opening frame from a team that looked locked in during a dominant Game 1, even more so because the Wolves held the Lakers to 70 points over the final three quarters.
Now the series shifts back to Minnesota for Game 3 on Friday night and Game 4 on Sunday. Here is what I like and don’t like after six days and two games in Los Angeles.
I don’t like how the Wolves are starting games
The Wolves were a disaster offensively all night, but especially in the first quarter, when they were outscored 34-15. Minnesota shot 28 percent in the opening period, including 28.6 percent from 3-point range and 50 percent from the free-throw line. Naz Reid picked up three fouls in eight minutes, Edwards was a minus-19 and just 2 of 4 in the quarter and the Wolves once again dug themselves a big hole.
Minnesota trailed in the first quarter of Game 1, 28-21, and has struggled with slow starts all season long. Against a team with Dončić, James (21 points, 11 rebounds, seven assists) and Austin Reaves (16 points, five rebounds and five assists), it is extremely dangerous to fall behind. Whether that is changing the starting lineup — Conley was pulled out for Donte DiVincenzo four minutes into the game — or something else, the Wolves just have to figure out a way to get off to better starts.
“We just can’t let them get off to a fast start,” Edwards said. “I feel like that’s the only thing with this team. They’re looking forward to coming out and jumping on you early.”
One big factor would be Edwards, who has been slow to get involved in each of the first two games. He had six points on 3-of-7 shooting in the first quarter of Game 1, then did not hit his first bucket of the game on Tuesday until he splashed a 3 with 2:27 to play in the first. Edwards hurt his right shoulder on a hard screen early in the game and appeared to be favoring it for much of the night. He finished with 25 points on 10-of-22 shooting, including just 2-of-8 from 3.
Edwards said he was thrown off by the Lakers’ defense, which looked like a pseudo zone when he would touch the ball.
“Every time I caught the ball at the top, it was kind of like it was in its zone,” Edwards said. “Even when you cut guys through, they just stayed. So I got to be ready to make those reads.”
I like how Julius Randle asserted himself
One of the big questions entering the series was how Randle would perform in the playoffs. He is a career 34 percent shooter in the postseason, but he came through with a playoff career-high 27 points and six assists in Game 2. While other Wolves struggled with the physical response from the Lakers, Randle seemed primed to absorb it.
get us going, Ju. pic.twitter.com/DeThJcbinr
— Minnesota Timberwolves (@Timberwolves) April 23, 2025
Randle’s wife, Kendra, gave birth to a baby girl last weekend. She arrived just in time so that Randle did not have to miss the game. He showed no ill effects from the whirlwind and only had one turnover in the game after giving it away seven times in Game 1.
“I wanted to be aggressive, getting into the paint, finishing,” Randle said. “Coach did a lot of stuff that helped us get some off-ball action. Me getting to the elbows, guys setting pin-downs, slipping, all those different types of things. We got a few easy looks in the third and fourth quarter, but we just can’t let them stagnate us.”
The Wolves cut a 22-point deficit to nine in the fourth quarter, but they never got any closer. Randle managed just two points in the final eight minutes.
“He was wonderful for us,” Edwards said. “Played his game, got to his spots, got to the free-throw line. Passed the ball, didn’t turn it over tonight. So he did everything he was supposed to do.”
I didn’t like the Wolves’ offensive approach
The Wolves put together an offensive masterpiece in Game 1, scoring 121 points, hitting 21 of 42 3s and racking up 29 assists on 44 made field goals. Not only was the ball moving, but bodies were as well, which allowed Jaden McDaniels and Reid to combine for 48 points on 19-of-25 shooting.
All of that went out the window in Game 2. The Wolves shot 38 percent from the field and attempted just 25 3-pointers in the game, a toothless attack that couldn’t get them going. They had 14 assists in the game.
McDaniels was 3 of 11 and missed all three of his 3s. Reid had one of his worst games in recent memory, picking up three fouls and going 0 of 2 with two turnovers in the first half. He finished with nine points and three turnovers. DiVincenzo was also in foul trouble early in the first half and had just four points on 1-of-4 shooting. Nickeil Alexander-Walker was 1 of 6 after going 2 of 9 in Game 1.
No one moved the ball, and no one was moving their body to combat the Lakers’ aggressive defense.
“I thought early on and throughout most of the game we just didn’t make the right play when it was in front of us,” coach Chris Finch said.
Finch said he would have liked to see more 3s go up, considering the Wolves have been one of the best shooting teams in the league all season. They only made five on Tuesday.
“I thought we turned down some 3s all night long, to be quite honest with you,” Finch said. “There were open 3s all night long.”
The hope is that some of the role players will shoot better in their home arena. But the Wolves’ 25-16 home record this season was the worst out of all the top six teams in the Western Conference. They also went 1-5 at Target Center in their final two playoff series last year.
The Lakers were 19-22 away from home in the regular season, the only team in the top eight of the West to have a losing record on the road. They are 6-8 on the road since Dončić joined the team, not counting a season-ending loss in Portland in which the Lakers rested players.
“Going into Minnesota will be a war,” Dončić said. “The fans are going to be cheering like crazy. … We can’t panic.”
Rudy Gobert deflects a pass from Luka Dončić on Tuesday night. (Kiyoshi Mio / Imagn Images)
I like the way Rudy Gobert is holding up defensively
So much attention has been paid to how Gobert will play defensively against a Lakers team that likes to play small and a star in Dončić who seemingly loves to target him. So far, Gobert has held his own.
Dončić has been hunting him in isolation situations and has had some success going to the basket and picking up fouls on him. But he is one of the craftiest players in the league, and there has to be a certain allowance for fouls committed while chasing him all over the place. Gobert got several chances on switches on Tuesday night and did quite well.
When Dončić was shooting against Gobert in Game 2, he was 1 of 4 for two points, according to @LockedOnMin. James was scoreless on 0-of-4 shooting against Gobert.
“I’m opening my feet too much when he just has a straight-line drive,” Gobert said. “He doesn’t even have to make a move to drive to the basket. I have to clean that up. We did that, and we tried to make it not easy for him to go downhill and try to make him work.”
Dončić did have a highlight or two as he tried to break Gobert down off the dribble, but he was 3 of 10 in the second half, including 0 of 3 from deep, which helped Minnesota creep back into the game.
“There’s always things that I’ve got to do better, we’ve got to do better,” Gobert said. “But overall, as a defender, that’s what I enjoy. I enjoy guarding the best players in the world and I always embrace that challenge.”
I like where the Timberwolves are in the series
Despite the disappointing outcome in Game 2, I think the Wolves are in a good spot as they head home. As TNT’s Kenny Smith put it in the postgame show, the Lakers didn’t play much better than they did in Game 1, but Minnesota played so much worse.
It is hard to imagine the Wolves will shoot that poorly from 3 again, even if they don’t have another night where they set a franchise record like they did in Game 1. If these games remain slugfests, that favors Minnesota.
For all of the highlights and tough shots that Dončić has made against the Wolves, the Lakers are still averaging just 94.5 points per game. They shot 45 percent from the field and 20.7 percent (6 of 29) from 3. The Lakers managed just 36 points in the second half. That is the recipe for a Wolves’ upset.
Yes, they have Dončić and James. The Wolves have played them pretty darn well. Now it’s a matter of getting some consistency on the offensive end, making shots and moving the ball. If they do that and don’t foul too much, they should be in good shape in what is sure to be a raucous Target Center on Friday night.
The Wolves are more athletic and deeper than the Lakers, but now they have to play like they are.
“It’s just about us. All season long, it’s been about us,” Alexander-Walker said. “We can give credit to like, oh yeah, they played physical, they played hard. Sure, but at the end of the day, we can control our input and how we approach the game.”
(Top photo of Julius Randle and Rui Hachimura: Sean M. Haffey / Getty Images)