The Golden State Warriors’ overtime loss to the Los Angeles Clippers has paved the way for one of the most compelling matchups in the opening round of the NBA Playoffs: the No. 3 seed Los Angeles Lakers vs. the No. 6 seed Minnesota Timberwolves.
Tied 2-2 in their regular season series, the two teams are set to square off in a best-of-seven showdown beginning April 19 at Crypto.com Arena. The series will feature a marquee duel between Timberwolves rising star Anthony Edwards and Lakers superstars LeBron James and Luka Doncic.
Adding fuel to the fire, a resurfaced clip from Netflix’s Starting 5 series has gone viral ahead of Game 1.
In it, Edwards delivers a bold message regarding his competitive mindset—and his desire to go head-to-head with James.
“I do not look up to anybody in the league right now currently. Not at all. Yeah, not the slightest,” Edwards says in the clip. “Yeah, I wanna cook LeBron one-on-one. Like, who don’t? If you say you don’t… then you don’t wanna compete.
Edwards has drawn widespread praise for his intensity and unshakable self-belief, traits that have prompted frequent comparisons to NBA legend Michael Jordan. Last postseason, Edwards helped the Timberwolves sweep Kevin Durant’s Phoenix Suns in the first round en route to a Conference Finals appearance. He’ll now aim to do the same against James and a surging Lakers squad.
With both teams boasting star power and playoff aspirations, the stage is set for a high-stakes battle that could deliver some of the postseason’s most electrifying moments
For the first time in more than a decade, someone who isn’t Stephen Curry or LeBron James holds the most-sold jersey in the NBA.
On Monday, the league announced that Los Angeles Lakers guard Luka Dončić held the highest-selling jersey for the 2024-25 season, becoming the first international player to top the list.
Per the NBA, jersey popularity was determined based on sales on NBAStore.com throughout the 2024-25 regular season. Sales of Dončić’s jersey rose in the past two months, spurred by the guard’s shocking trade to the Lakers in February.
Prior to this year, Dončić had been in the top 10 highest-selling jerseys for the past five seasons.
Dončić broke an 11-year streak of either Curry or James holding the top spot. James was the highest-selling jersey during the 2013-14 and 2014-15 seasons — his final year with the Miami Heat and first with the Cleveland Cavaliers during his second stint — before Curry took over for the next three years during his championship run with the Golden State Warriors.
In 2018, when James joined the Lakers, he took over the top jersey spot again and held it for five straight years. Curry once again took over as the highest-selling jersey last season.
Despite Dončić now owning the league’s most popular jersey, Curry and James are still best sellers: Curry came in as the No. 2 jersey in the league, with James at No. 3. Other top sellers include Boston Celtics forward Jayson Tatum at No. 4, New York Knicks guard Jalen Brunson at No. 5, and San Antonio Spurs center Victor Wembanyama coming in at No. 6, despite his season ending early due to blood clots.
Dončić and James will play the Minnesota Timberwolves — whose star, Anthony Edwards, came in at No. 7 — in the first round of the NBA playoffs.
Four games and no information? A season series that offers little roadmap for the postseason meetings to come?
It’s a bit of a weird situation as the Lakers head into the playoffs against the Minnesota Timberwolves, their roster overhaul and strange December making it hard to really look to the past for information on the future.
“We had games the last, six, seven weeks where we hadn’t played the team since [Anthony Davis] was on the team and didn’t have Luka [Doncic]. So we have a way of prepping based on previous games, previous games against Luka,” JJ Redick said Sunday. “We have a general idea of what their rules are, just like they have a general idea of what our rules are.”
Still, there have to be things from the Lakers games with the Timberwolves this year that are going to matter.
As the teams open their first-round playoff series Saturday at 5:30 p.m. at Crypto.com Arena, let’s take a quick look at how they match up.
The Lakers won their season opener as LeBron James and Bronny James become the first father-son duo to play as teammates in an NBA game. JJ Redick’s first win was sparked by the Lakers holding Minnesota to just 42 first-half points. Anthony Davis dominated with 36 points, Rui Hachimura had 18, LeBron James had 16 and Austin Reaves scored 12, the Lakers shooting five of 30 from three-point range. Anthony Edwards led Minnesota with 27.
The Lakers had a season low for points, playing without an injured Austin Reaves (hip contusion). The team made only six of 31 from three, with D’Angelo Russell making four of them. Anthony Edwards shot just three of 13 , but three different Minnesota reserves scored in double figures off the bench.
The Lakers offense was only slightly better in Austin Reaves’ first game back from injury. LeBron James was out dealing with a foot injury. Four players not currently on the roster played significant minutes — Anthony Davis, Max Christie, D’Angelo Russell and Cam Reddish.
Playing with their full rotation, the Lakers held Minnesota to 17 first-quarter points while leading by as many as 17 points. LeBron James scored 33 and grabbed 17 rebounds while Austin Reaves had 23 and Luka Doncic 21 against Minnesota, which was playing without Julius Randle and Rudy Gobert. Rookie Terrance Shannon Jr. led Minnesota with 25 points off the bench. Anthony Edwards got ejected and played just 26 minutes.
For the Clippers to become the fifth seed in the competitive Western Conference and avoid the NBA’s play-in tournament, they had to win their last two games of the regular-season, at Sacramento and Golden State, respectively, and both games came down to the wire.
The Clippers escaped with a victory over the Kings by one point after James Harden turned the ball over late in the game that led to DeMar DeRozan missing a potential game-winning shot as time expired. The Clippers got by the Warriors in overtime behind Harden scoring 12 of their 13 points in the extra five-minute period en route to 39 points.
The Clippers are on a roll, having won eight straight games and 17 of their last 20.
Read more: How the NBA’s play-in tournament works and when it starts
Kawhi Leonard finished the season strong, showing no signs of slowing down because of a right knee injury that kept him out much of the season. Ivica Zubac and Norman Powell have both starred in their roles, giving the Clippers two more weapons.
So when the Clippers and the Denver Nuggets open their best-of-seven playoff series Saturday at 12:30 p.m. at Ball Arena, it has the makings of a very intense and close series.
This was the beginning of Powell’s breakout season, a sign that he was ready to step into a big void with Leonard out recovering from a right knee injury and Paul George having taken his talents to the 76ers. Powell exploded for a career-high 37 points on 14-for-21 shooting and seven-for-11 from three-point range.
Nikola Jokic was a force with 41 points, but with Harden producing 23 points and 16 assists, the Clippers pulled off the win.
It took Harden playing 38 minutes, 25 seconds and producing 39 points, 11 assists and nine rebounds and it took Powell adding 28 points for the Clippers to overcome the brilliance of Jokic’s 28 points, 14 rebounds and 11 assists.
This time, it was Nuggets guard Jamal Murray who did the Clippers in. He had 20 points on a night when Jokic had just 16 points, seven rebounds and two assists. Harden struggled taking care of the ball during this game, turning it over nine times. He had just 15 points, while Powell had 16.
Leonard flew back to Los Angeles before the game to help his family deal with the wildfires. Powell had 30 points. Murray led the Nuggets with 21 points and nine assists and Russell Westbrook had 19 points and eight assists.
The 2025 WNBA Draft is in the books, and the Dallas Wings hope it will be another transformative event in the league’s history, much like the 2024 draft was for the Indiana Fever. As expected, Paige Bueckers was the top selection — though, perhaps unexpectedly, walking the stage in her second outfit of the evening — and there weren’t many surprises until the third round
