The regular season came to an end on Sunday afternoon, which meant the standings and first rounds matchups for the 2025 NBA Playoffs outside of the Play-In Tournament teams got locked in. The Los Angeles Lakers’ regular season finale didn’t have any implications on the standings, but some other results across the league affected their first round opponent.
The Lakers had the luxury of resting their key players and paying attention to other games as they already locked up the No. 3 seed and a 50-win season with their win over the Houston Rockets on Friday night.
That meant that they would be playing the No. 6 seed in the first round, and heading into the regular season finale, that could either be the Golden State Warriors, Minnesota Timberwolves or Denver Nuggets.
The Nuggets and Timberwolves both took care of business with wins on Sunday, which meant things came down to the Warriors’ game against the L.A. Clippers. A Warriors would win give them the sixth seed while a Clippers win would secure it for the Timberwolves.
Ultimately, the Clippers came out on top in a back-and-forth overtime game, which secured a first round matchup for the Lakers against Anthony Edwards and the Timberwolves in the third versus sixth matchup.
That’s exactly how the Lakers started the season as they beat Minnesota at home on Opening Night. The teams split their four regular season matchups with the home team winning all of them.
While playing a red-hot Timberwolves team in the first round certainly isn’t ideal, the Lakers are confident that they have a team that can go all the way and this will just be the first test on that road.
The Lakers are used to being in the Play-In Tournament the last few years but with them wrapping up the No. 3 seed, they will get a week of rest before they host Game 1 next weekend. That rest is something Luka Doncic is very much looking forward to.
“Big time, big time, but I gotta get some rest obviously, but you know, the good part of the season is coming, so I gotta stay ready, gotta stay locked in, but for sure it’s gonna be great,” Doncic said.
The Lakers’ first round series against the Timberwolves will be a rematch of last year’s Western Conference for Doncic, whose Dallas Mavericks defeated them in five games.
