The Minnesota Timberwolves shocked the world on Saturday, not only stealing a win from the Los Angeles Lakers at Crypto Arena in game one of their series, but doing it by 22 points.
Now, the Wolves face an almost tougher challenge: doing it again. LeBron James, Luka Doncic and the rest of the LA squad certainly don’t want to find themselves down 2-0 going into hostile territory, but Minnesota has proven they can get the win once. Here’s how they can keep the ball rolling.
GO AT LUKA
One of the biggest criticisms Dallas Mavericks General Manager Nico Harrison launched at Doncic following the shocking trade that sent him to LA was that his defense wasn’t strong enough to win a championship. As tough as it might be to admit it, even though the trade was still absurd, Harrison was right in this regard.
Luka spent most of his time in game one guarding Jaden McDaniels, who in that time would collect eight of his 25 points and shoot 75 percent. Of the players Luka guarded for more than 90 seconds and who took more than one shot, only one of them shot below 40 percent: Julius Randle.
Doncic seemed unable to match-up against the Wolves’ best guard in Anthony Edwards, with Ant dropping five points in just under two minutes on Doncic while shooting 50 percent from three; the Georgia star often drawing double teams when guarded by Doncic.
Testing Luka’s defense was a strategy the Boston Celtics used in their Finals win last year, and it’s one the Wolves could utilize for an advantage tonight.
KEEP THE LID ON AUSTIN REAVES
Minnesota did a good job holding back Reaves’ offense last game, with the Lakers’ third option scoring just 16 points on 38 percent shooting. Those numbers would’ve been more damaging had James played up to his level, but thankful that didn’t happen (LeBron would score 19 on 8-18 shooting).
But that’s not going to happen every night, and history tells us that the deeper Los Angeles goes into the series the more unstoppable LeBron will get. He and Luka are going to do their damage, almost regardless of what Minnesota does. However, if the Timberwolves can hold their third-best player to under 15 a game, then the Wolves stand a chance at more blowouts, especially with help from these next guys.
BENCH SCORING
The Lakers don’t exactly have a deep bench.The team goes about seven players deep with Dorian Finney-Smith and Jarred Vanderbilt being the primary scorers. Minnesota, on the other hand, is able to go about eight or nine deep with Donte DiVincenzo, Nickeil Alexander-Walker and, or course, Naz Reid. Reid himself outscored the entire Lakers bench in game one, almost doubling their total points at 23-13.
Minnesota’s bench is going to be critical in this series, especially their bigs, given the lack of height in LA’s lineup.
FRUSTRATE DONCIC
We started with him, we’ll end with him. Los Angeles’ star of the future is one of the best players in the NBA. He’s already built an impressive legacy, and a deep run this postseason would go a long way towards solidifying his status as a star of the future.
He just so happens to also be one of the league’s biggest divas.
Doncic has a history of getting himself and his team in trouble due to his temper in pressure-filled games. As weird as it might be to think of a round one series as being high-pressure, Luka needs to prove that Harrison was wrong about him not being the star of a championship squad. A round one exit would hurt that case, without question. Emotions will almost certainly be running high for the Slovenian star, and we’ve seen how he’s likely to act when that happens.
And this isn’t just speculation. We saw it in game one. And now especially if Los Angeles goes down 0-2 and heads to Minneapolis, Luka’s going to need to keep a lid on if he wants to give the Lakers the best chance of coming back.
If Minnesota can cause him to blow a gasket, he might just blow the series for them.