MINNEAPOLIS — It didn’t matter that LeBron James had one of his highest-scoring playoff games with the Lakers on Friday night.
Or that the Lakers, at least for one game, broke out of their collective shooting slump, knocking down 17 of their 40 3-point attempts on Friday after making a combined 21 in Games 1 and 2 of their first-round series against the Minnesota Timberwolves.
Because as James said during Friday morning’s shootaround, “it doesn’t matter what the numbers look like. It doesn’t matter what the stat sheet looks like. … It’s about winning the game and seeing what team you get to four faster than the other team. That’s the only thing that matters.”
And the Timberwolves moved one game closer to achieving that goal on Friday night, beating the Lakers, 116-104, to take a 2-1 lead in the best-of-seven series. Game 4 is Sunday afternoon.
James finished with 38 points (13-of-21 shooting), 10 rebounds and four assists, leading the Lakers on a night when Luka Doncic struggled as he battled with a stomach illness that he had been dealing with since Thursday, with ESPN’s Lisa Salters first reporting the ailment during the first quarter of the game.
Doncic finished with 17 points, eight assists and seven rebounds, but shot 6 for 16 from the field (2 for 8 from 3-point range) and had five turnovers against a Minnesota defense that blitzed and trapped him more often compared to the first two games.
But late-game heroics from James and Doncic, and the Lakers’ hot shooting, were spoiled by their struggles with the smaller of the details of the game – factors that added up.
The Lakers turned the ball over 19 times, directly leading to 28 Minnesota points.
The Timberwolves scored 21 fast-break points, quickly turning defense into offense against a Lakers team that often looked outmatched athletically.
The Lakers also missed seven of their 20 free-throw attempts, leaving valuable points on the board on a night when they needed every one of them.
So even with James knocking down three straight 3-pointers in a four-possession span to cut the Lakers’ deficit from seven points (97-90) to one (100-99) midway through the fourth quarter, or Doncic making a pair of free throws and a floater on back-to-back possessions to tie the score at 103, the Lakers didn’t overcome the hole they put themselves in.
The Timberwolves outscored the Lakers 13-1 over the final 4:37 of the game after Doncic’s tying baseline jumper.
And Anthony Edwards took a significant step forward in attacking the Lakers, burying them even deeper in that hole.
Edwards scored or assisted on the Timberwolves’ final 13 points, leading Minnesota down the stretch with his shot-making and playmaking. The All-NBA guard finished with 29 points on 12-of-26 shooting to go with eight assists and eight rebounds.
Jaden McDaniels led the Timberwolves with a career playoff-high 30 points on 13-of-22 shooting and spearheaded Minnesota’s stifling defense on Doncic, while Julius Randle had 22 points.
The Timberwolves also got 11 points off the bench from Naz Reid, and 10 points from Donte DiVincenzo.
Austin Reaves was the only Laker besides James and Doncic to score in double figures, finishing with 20 points (7-of-18 shooting), seven rebounds and four assists.
More to come on this story.
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