After being blown out on their home floor in Game 1, the Los Angeles Lakers looked to get back on track against the Minnesota Timberwolves in Game 2.
This was essentially a must-win game for the Lakers, and while it wasn’t pretty, they were able to get a 94-85 victory to even up the series. The 85 points allowed were a season-low for the Laker defense.
All of the Lakers got involved offensively early with Jaxson Hayes, LeBron James, Luka Doncic and Rui Hachimura all scoring to take an 13-5 lead. Julius Randle helped settle the Timberwolves in with a triple after they missed their first few from deep.
Gabe Vincent came off the bench and hit a pair of triples. Doncic caught fire from there and had another 16-point first quarter. The Lakers were also locked in defensively, leading 34-15 at the end of one.
With Doncic on the bench, James picked up the slack offensively to start the second while L.A. stayed locked in defensively.
The Lakers began to let go of the rope a bit as their once 22-point lead was cut to 14 with Randle keeping his team in it offensively. Hachimura had a three-point play at the end of the half, but Anthony Edwards then made a layup so the Lakers went into the locker room with a 58-43 lead.
Edwards had a massive poster dunk on Hayes to begin the second half. He had seven straight points for his team and Minnesota continued to inch their way back into the game.
JJ Redick took a much-need timeout with the lead down to 11 and was not happy. Doncic scored out of the timeout though and then found Dorian Finney-Smith for an open triple. After a putback by James to cap off a quick 7-0 run, it was the Timberwolves that needed a timeout.
There were a lot of fouls and reviews in the third quarter that killed the flow of the game, but the Lakers were able to maintain an 81-65 lead going into the fourth quarter.
Minnesota finally started to make some outside shots early in the fourth and all of a sudden L.A.’s lead was down to single digits for the first time in a while at 86-77.
A timeout again restored order for the Lakers though as James and Reaves had back-to-back layups. They locked in defensively from there and closed out the victory.
The series now shifts to Minnesota for Games 3 and 4 on Friday and Sunday, respectively. The Lakers obviously are going to have to win on the road in order to come out victorious in this series and their first opportunity to do so is in Game 3.
