The difference between the Lakers’ Game 1 play and their Game 2 performance was night and day.
In their first matchup against the Wolves in this series, they were physically outplayed and blown out. In the rematch, they were the ones bullying the Wolves. They held the Wolves to 85 points, stopped Anthony Edwards and cruised to victory.
After coming out on top of this “must-win” game, Luka Dončić threw cold water on the idea that Los Angeles came out with a different gameplan for success.
“No, we did the same gameplan,” Luka said. “We don’t really change much. It was just a question of if we’re going to be more physical or not. I think we showed that. We were there for 48 minutes. We got up big in the first quarter, learned from the last game and just stuck to it.
L.A.’s physicality showed up not just in the final score, but all over the stat sheet. The Lakers were able to outrebound the Wolves 41-34, broke even in the points in the paint department and forced Minnesota to shoot 20% from 3-point range.
Dorian Finney-Smith mentioned needing to reduce 3-point attempts after Game 1 and the Lakers did that with the Wolves going from 41 attempts down to just 25 in Game 2.
The Wolves making just five 3-pointers was a season-low for any Lakers opponent.
While Luka says the Lakers didn’t change their gameplan, Edwards would certainly disagree. He mentioned that the Lakers’ defense “confused” him and the coverages were something he’d never seen before.
In the end, it was likely a combination of the two. The Lakers came out with physical toughness, mixed that in with some different defensive looks and they were able to win and even this series up.
The key for the Lakers is to keep this standard of play going as this series heads to Minnesota. That won’t be an easy task, as the Wolves fans will certainly create a hostile environment, but the Lakers have proven that if they come with the appropriate toughness, they can beat this team.
