EL SEGUNDO — As the final score of Saturday’s 117-95 Game 1 loss to the Minnesota Timberwolves suggests, the Lakers had a lot they needed to work on over the last two days to give themselves the best chance of knotting the first-round series with a Game 2 win on Tuesday night at Crypto.com Arena.
“We have to do a lot of things better,” Coach JJ Redick said after Monday’s practice. “And it starts with playing harder and being organized.”
Those are the starting points for the Lakers, with several branches of details stemming from Redick’s words.
Here are three things to keep an eye on during Tuesday’s Game 2:
DEFENSIVE REBOUNDING
At first glance, the Timberwolves’ 11 offensive rebounds don’t appear as though they would be too detrimental for the Lakers – but they were.
Even though the figure is in line with Minnesota’s regular-season average of 11.1 offensive boards, the Timberwolves made the Lakers pay for nearly every extra opportunity they got.
Minnesota scored 23 second-chance points on Saturday – nearly five points more than the statistic-leading Houston Rockets scored during the regular season (18.1).
The Timberwolves shot 8 for 11 from the field after grabbing an offensive rebound on Saturday – including 7 for 10 before rotation players were pulled – with most of the second-chance points being field goals at the rim or open 3-pointers.
— Khobi Price (@khobiprice.bsky.social) 2025-04-22T13:37:32.121Z
Many of Minnesota’s offensive rebounds weren’t just taking advantage of lucky bounces, but came from the Timberwolves simply outmuscling or outhustling the Lakers on the boards after not facing enough resistance on box outs. Six of their offensive rebounds were players grabbing their own missed shots.
“Our first shot defense was good,” Lakers forward Dorian Finney-Smith said. “We just [weren’t] getting those loose balls. They [were] first to the ball. They [were] just a little bit more into it. And we got to do the same.”
OFF-BALL CLEAN UP
The Lakers were intentional with their defensive strategy of showing early help against Anthony Edwards on his isolation plays, especially from the wing, with the scheme mostly paying off.
But the Timberwolves made the Lakers pay when they overhelped. Or when they helped when they didn’t need to.
One example came early in the second quarter when Jarred Vanderbilt was too far from Naz Reid during Julius Randle’s post-up against LeBron James.
— Khobi Price (@khobiprice.bsky.social) 2025-04-22T13:38:15.591Z
The problems: Vanderbilt was caught in no man’s land, too far away from Randle to properly help/double-team Randle in the post and too far away from Reid to close out; Reid was just one pass away from Randle; Reid shot nearly 40% on catch-and-shoot 3-point attempts (39.8% – 310 for 777) over the last two regular seasons.
The result: Randle kicked the ball out to Reid, who drained a catch-and-shoot 3 before Vanderbilt could close out, giving the Timberwolves their first lead of the game at 31-30.
A similar situation occurred when Rui Hachimura helped off Reid in the strong-side corner on Randle’s drive to the rim past Luka Doncic late in the second quarter, with Randle making the easy kick-out pass to Reid for a catch-and-shoot corner 3 to extend the Timberwolves’ lead to 51-38.
— Khobi Price (@khobiprice.bsky.social) 2025-04-22T13:39:20.549Z
Minnesota knocked down 66.7% (18 for 27) of its catch-and-shoot looks from behind the arc – an unsustainable percentage. But the quality of those looks were concerning for the Lakers.
The Lakers’ perimeter defense certainly needs to be better and more physical to help prevent drives to the rim, but their off-ball defense also needs to be sharper to prevent the Timberwolves from creating easy looks.
ATTACKING MINNESOTA
Unlike most teams when they’ve played the Doncic-led Lakers, the Timberwolves didn’t blitz or hedge on most Doncic-orchestrated pick-and-rolls, mostly opting to have Rudy Gobert be at the level of screens and drop back or switch in those situations.
The Timberwolves also deployed switching defensive lineups when Gobert wasn’t in the game, limiting the times they doubled/trapped or had two defenders on the ball after ball-screens, which prevented the four-on-three opportunities the Lakers have become accustomed to seeing.
How the Lakers attack Minnesota’s switching is an aspect of Game 2 to monitor. Doncic did well with attacking the Timberwolves’ switches, but too often the team’s offense stagnated.
— Khobi Price (@khobiprice.bsky.social) 2025-04-22T13:41:13.533Z
The Timberwolves had a possession in the third quarter that was a great example of what can be done to attack a switching defense: Randle sealed Doncic on his help after setting a screen for Mike Conley, creating a passing window that allowed Randle to drive to the basket and assist Gobert for an alley-oop.
— Khobi Price (@khobiprice.bsky.social) 2025-04-22T13:41:59.747Z
Improved offensive game plans can help create easier looks near the rim for the Lakers, who shot 52.6% (10 for 19) within five feet of the basket on Saturday after averaging a league-high 68% on these looks during the regular season.
And improved shooting accuracy at the rim would help prevent transition opportunities for the Timberwolves, who outscored the Lakers 25-6 on fast-break points in Game 1.
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