The Los Angeles Lakers opened the preseason and regular season against the Minnesota Timberwolves, and now they’ll open the postseason against them as well.
The No. 3 seed Lakers will host the No. 6 Timberwolves in the first round of the 2025 NBA playoffs. Game 1 is Saturday in Los Angeles.
Los Angeles closed the regular season short-handed in a 109-81 road loss to the Portland Trail Blazers on Sunday. The Lakers finished the season 50-32 — a three-win improvement from last season that led to a five-seed jump from No. 8 to No. 3 (the Lakers finished last regular season as the No. 8 seed but played their way to No. 7 in the Play-In tournament).
Luka Dončić (left quad) and LeBron James (left groin and right thumb) didn’t make the trip. Austin Reaves (right ankle sprain), Rui Hachimura (left patellar tendinopathy), Jaxson Hayes (right hand contusion), Dorian Finney-Smith (left ankle effusion), Gabe Vincent (left knee effusion) and Jarred Vanderbilt (left foot injury management) were also out of the lineup as the Lakers prioritized rest and recovery for their primary rotation players.
The Lakers-Blazers game finished before the Golden State Warriors-LA Clippers matchup ended. With the result of that game determining whether the Lakers drew the Timberwolves or Warriors in Round 1, Lakers players, coaches and staffers gathered around the TV in the middle of the locker room to watch their fate unfold. The Clippers won 124-119 in overtime, propelling the Timberwolves to No. 6 and dropping the Warriors down to No. 7 in the Play-In tournament.
Lakers coach JJ Redick didn’t speak with reporters until after that game. He offered a bare-bones scouting report of the Timberwolves.
“It’s a very difficult opponent,” Redick said. “They’ve played as well as anyone lately. I believe they’re one of four teams in the top 10 in offense and defense. So they present a lot of problems.”
Of note, the Timberwolves are the one team in the lower portion of the projected Western Conference playoff bracket that the Lakers haven’t faced at full strength since the Dončić trade. The teams last played on Feb. 27 — nearly three weeks after Dončić debuted for Los Angeles — but the game wasn’t representative of the upcoming first-round series.
Minnesota was without starting bigs Julius Randle and Rudy Gobert. The game itself was also a bit misleading. Anthony Edwards was ejected midway through the third quarter. Hachimura injured his knee and exited in the first half. And the Timberwolves went on a big run sans Edwards to make the game interesting in the fourth before the Lakers pulled away for a 111-102 victory.
The teams split the season series 2-2. Redick said the Lakers have a fundamental understanding of the Wolves and their playing style even if there isn’t a sample size with the current versions of the teams.
“We have a general idea of what their rules are, just like they have a general idea of what our rules are,” Redick said. “It doesn’t necessarily matter that we don’t have anything on tape with both teams at full strength.”
The Timberwolves closed the season 9-2 to finish 49-33 — one game behind the Lakers. They ranked top 10 on both ends of the court — No. 8 in offense and No. 6 in defense — joining the elite company of the Oklahoma City Thunder, Cleveland Cavaliers and Boston Celtics.
Any conversation about the Wolves starts with Edwards, who averaged a career-high 27.4 points per game this season and led the NBA in 3-pointers made (320). The 23-year-old is capable of matching Dončić or James for a seven-game series and likely must do so for the Wolves to pull off the upset.
Dončić has a recent history with Minnesota, having led the Mavericks to a 4-1 series win over the Wolves in the Western Conference finals last year. He averaged 32.4 points, 9.6 rebounds, 8.2 assists and 2.2 steals en route to winning Western Conference MVP.
Redick, who has cultivated a collaborative dynamic with his players during his rookie coaching season, shared that he’s going to lean on his superstar’s experience to construct his game plan.
“There’s regular season and there’s playoffs, and … it’s not completely different things, but there are nuances to what teams are trying to do against certain opponents,” Redick said.
Redick also said the Lakers will lean on assistant coach Greg St. Jean, who was on the Phoenix Suns’ staff last season when they were swept by the Timberwolves in the first round.
The Lakers will have Monday off before reconvening on Tuesday for a late afternoon practice and then a viewing of the Warriors-Memphis Grizzlies play-in game for the No. 7 seed (which would put the winner on the same side of the playoff bracket as the Lakers). The tentative plan is to also practice Wednesday, Thursday and Friday, beginning Minnesota-specific game-planning on Wednesday.
Redick said the Lakers will introduce “a little bit of playoff stuff” but added that “it’s not necessarily gonna be everything at once this week.”
“We’ll have to slow drip,” he said. “That’s the approach that I think is gonna work best for our group.”
The Lakers will host a Game 1 in Los Angeles for the first time since 2012. They were the No. 1 seed and had homecourt during the 2020 playoffs, but that postseason was in the Orlando bubble.
Redick said earlier last week that he’s looking forward to the strategic challenges in his first playoff appearance.
“We have a lot of work,” Redick said. “They’re a really good basketball team.”
