Game 1, 4/19: Minnesota at Los Angeles, 7:30 pm

[younggunsmn]

Revenge for 2004!
If we can get that this season will be a success!
Might even give Luka Doncic 2nd thoughts about signing an extension with the Lakers!

[TimberKat]

We were 21 for 42 from 3s today. We aren't going to shoot like that the next game. Ant and JMcD was getting to the basket at will. I think that lack of middle defense will continue to be an issue for LAL. I loved Ant attacked Luka a few times in the 2nd half. We need to continue to do that.

[younggunsmn]

Jaden McDaniels had 25 points on 11/13 tonight with zero turnovers and I believe he offensive rebounded and put back his only 2 misses.
Him attacking the basket off of closeouts isn't something the Lakers have a counter for.

[MNRunLeft]

Would expect the Wolves to see a slight decline in 3pt% but at the same time given how the Lakers fared on the offensive glass early in the game feels like the Wolves can also reduce second chance points allowed. For all the talk of Mike having no matchup this series he held his own and the Lakers lack of parameter defense led to the drive and kick opportunities. I thought we’d need more from Rudy to steal game 1, Jaden took advantage of the lack of size and hopefully Rudy does the same in future games.

[Note30]

Revenge for 2004!
If we can get that this season will be a success!
Might even give Luka Doncic 2nd thoughts about signing an extension with the Lakers!

We do need a PG

[winforlose]

AI is SCARY, but tonight it is also fun.

https://youtube.com/shorts/OeBNUfiBEwk

[Cappy_Smurf]

Jazz fan here. Congrats on the win and looking forward to 3 more of the same.

I didn't watch the game, but I've seen a few posts about Gobert not having a good game.

Rudy's biggest problem in playoff games has always been that he lets it affect him when the refs are calling him tight, which they always seem to do in the playoffs. Considering the way the league officiates for the Lakers, I don't expect him to have a great series, but his impact is frequently overlooked by a lot of NBA fans who don't realize what a huge impact he has on an offense just by discouraging them from attacking the rim and instead forcing lower-percentage shots. Hopefully he avoids letting the refs get in his head.

Go T-wolves!

[BlacJacMac]

That was as mature of a game as I've seen Ant play.

His reads were dead-on all night. I don't remember any heavily contested 3s. His passes out of drives were on target and to the right guys at the right time. He kept his bitching to a minimum.

9 assists, 1 turnover.

[Loaf_of_bread]

Jazz fan here. Congrats on the win and looking forward to 3 more of the same.

I didn't watch the game, but I've seen a few posts about Gobert not having a good game.

Rudy's biggest problem in playoff games has always been that he lets it affect him when the refs are calling him tight, which they always seem to do in the playoffs. Considering the way the league officiates for the Lakers, I don't expect him to have a great series, but his impact is frequently overlooked by a lot of NBA fans who don't realize what a huge impact he has on an offense just by discouraging them from attacking the rim and instead forcing lower-percentage shots. Hopefully he avoids letting the refs get in his head.

Go T-wolves!

Rudy will make sure we dont lose this series. Guy is underrated by wolves fans that don't know ****. He's dialed..

[winforlose]

2 Key stats for me:
Wolves had 10 turnovers
Lakers shot 16 FTs.

I think we win 9/10 games against the Lakers where we have those numbers or better.
But I don't think they let both teams get away with playing that physical every game.
Julius smashing LeBron in the face while he was trying to flop was chef's kiss for me, as was laying Luka out while he was throwing an outlet pass.
If those guys are going to hunt fouls all game long, make yours count.

Wolves also had 29 assists to 15 for the Lakers. If you can contain their initial actions they revert to ISO ball, and we did a great job at that.
Julius being able to take some of the defensive heat off of Jaden, NAW, and Mike guarding the bigger stronger Luka and LeBron was a key to success tonight.

I expect JJ to switch up his offense a bit going forward to run more off ball actions to get LeBron and Luka going downhill more.
Our primary focus offensively seemed to be hunting advantageous switches for Ant and Julius and letting them go to work.
I'm guessing Finch has been eager to find ways to exploit Luka defensively ever since the Dallas series ended.
If we can keep doing what we are doing and cut down on Julius's turnovers a bit I think we can keep having success, but it's going to depend on our ability to keep making catch and shoot 3's.
Ant missed a ton of makeable layups tonight.

Love it. But the key point you missed is that of those 15 Luka had 1. We did to Luka what we normally do to Joker. We accept that they are great and great players get theirs. But we stop them from getting other people easy buckets, and therefore stop them from getting going.

My biggest expectation is 30 minutes for both DFS and Vando in game 2.

[winforlose]

We had 10 turnovers total. Randle had 7!

To be fair, it looked like they were doubling Randle on the bounce. Held the ball a bit too long at times but he was still solid I thought.

Why do you think they double him? He still hasn't learned after all this time to pass the ball when the double comes. But no! He has to be the hero. I'm tired of it. It's his major fault as a player and he just won't change.

7 turnovers to 3 assists is not solid Guest. Nick they double him because they cannot single cover a lot of the back to the basket action.

[Neeva]

Hopefully tonight are the only bad games for Rudy and Randle this series, nice to get those out of the way and still win.

[BlacJacMac]

2 Key stats for me:
Wolves had 10 turnovers
Lakers shot 16 FTs.

I think we win 9/10 games against the Lakers where we have those numbers or better.
But I don't think they let both teams get away with playing that physical every game.
Julius smashing LeBron in the face while he was trying to flop was chef's kiss for me, as was laying Luka out while he was throwing an outlet pass.
If those guys are going to hunt fouls all game long, make yours count.

Wolves also had 29 assists to 15 for the Lakers. If you can contain their initial actions they revert to ISO ball, and we did a great job at that.
Julius being able to take some of the defensive heat off of Jaden, NAW, and Mike guarding the bigger stronger Luka and LeBron was a key to success tonight.

I expect JJ to switch up his offense a bit going forward to run more off ball actions to get LeBron and Luka going downhill more.
Our primary focus offensively seemed to be hunting advantageous switches for Ant and Julius and letting them go to work.
I'm guessing Finch has been eager to find ways to exploit Luka defensively ever since the Dallas series ended.
If we can keep doing what we are doing and cut down on Julius's turnovers a bit I think we can keep having success, but it's going to depend on our ability to keep making catch and shoot 3's.
Ant missed a ton of makeable layups tonight.

Love it. But the key point you missed is that of those 15 Luka had 1. We did to Luka what we normally do to Joker. We accept that they are great and great players get theirs. But we stop them from getting other people easy buckets, and therefore stop them from getting going.

My biggest expectation is 30 minutes for both DFS and Vando in game 2.

I hope Vando plays 30+ minutes in Game 2.

[younggunsmn]

Jazz fan here. Congrats on the win and looking forward to 3 more of the same.

I didn't watch the game, but I've seen a few posts about Gobert not having a good game.

Rudy's biggest problem in playoff games has always been that he lets it affect him when the refs are calling him tight, which they always seem to do in the playoffs. Considering the way the league officiates for the Lakers, I don't expect him to have a great series, but his impact is frequently overlooked by a lot of NBA fans who don't realize what a huge impact he has on an offense just by discouraging them from attacking the rim and instead forcing lower-percentage shots. Hopefully he avoids letting the refs get in his head.

Go T-wolves!

Thanks!

Rudy's problem in this series is that Luka loves to hunt him pn switches and, if Rudy isn't getting a good whistle that game, that's a very poor matchup for him. lakers don't have anyone that beats you off the dribble so Rudy doesnt have a lot of perimeter leakage to contain in this series.

But I think over the whole series Rudy's rebounding especially is going to be much needed and he will have at least one big game.
It just looked like over the course of the game Finch preferred the Naz+Randle matchups on both ends of the court.

[Jkam31]

2 Key stats for me:
Wolves had 10 turnovers
Lakers shot 16 FTs.

I think we win 9/10 games against the Lakers where we have those numbers or better.
But I don't think they let both teams get away with playing that physical every game.
Julius smashing LeBron in the face while he was trying to flop was chef's kiss for me, as was laying Luka out while he was throwing an outlet pass.
If those guys are going to hunt fouls all game long, make yours count.

Wolves also had 29 assists to 15 for the Lakers. If you can contain their initial actions they revert to ISO ball, and we did a great job at that.
Julius being able to take some of the defensive heat off of Jaden, NAW, and Mike guarding the bigger stronger Luka and LeBron was a key to success tonight.

I expect JJ to switch up his offense a bit going forward to run more off ball actions to get LeBron and Luka going downhill more.
Our primary focus offensively seemed to be hunting advantageous switches for Ant and Julius and letting them go to work.
I'm guessing Finch has been eager to find ways to exploit Luka defensively ever since the Dallas series ended.
If we can keep doing what we are doing and cut down on Julius's turnovers a bit I think we can keep having success, but it's going to depend on our ability to keep making catch and shoot 3's.
Ant missed a ton of makeable layups tonight.

Love it. But the key point you missed is that of those 15 Luka had 1. We did to Luka what we normally do to Joker. We accept that they are great and great players get theirs. But we stop them from getting other people easy buckets, and therefore stop them from getting going.

My biggest expectation is 30 minutes for both DFS and Vando in game 2.

Candi can’t play more than 25 minutes his offense is atrocious

[A1FromDay1]

That was as mature of a game as I've seen Ant play.

His reads were dead-on all night. I don't remember any heavily contested 3s. His passes out of drives were on target and to the right guys at the right time. He kept his bitching to a minimum.

9 assists, 1 turnover.

Also, at least 2 times after rebounding his own miss in the paint he immediately found someone open at the 3point line.

[winforlose]

2 Key stats for me:
Wolves had 10 turnovers
Lakers shot 16 FTs.

I think we win 9/10 games against the Lakers where we have those numbers or better.
But I don't think they let both teams get away with playing that physical every game.
Julius smashing LeBron in the face while he was trying to flop was chef's kiss for me, as was laying Luka out while he was throwing an outlet pass.
If those guys are going to hunt fouls all game long, make yours count.

Wolves also had 29 assists to 15 for the Lakers. If you can contain their initial actions they revert to ISO ball, and we did a great job at that.
Julius being able to take some of the defensive heat off of Jaden, NAW, and Mike guarding the bigger stronger Luka and LeBron was a key to success tonight.

I expect JJ to switch up his offense a bit going forward to run more off ball actions to get LeBron and Luka going downhill more.
Our primary focus offensively seemed to be hunting advantageous switches for Ant and Julius and letting them go to work.
I'm guessing Finch has been eager to find ways to exploit Luka defensively ever since the Dallas series ended.
If we can keep doing what we are doing and cut down on Julius's turnovers a bit I think we can keep having success, but it's going to depend on our ability to keep making catch and shoot 3's.
Ant missed a ton of makeable layups tonight.

Love it. But the key point you missed is that of those 15 Luka had 1. We did to Luka what we normally do to Joker. We accept that they are great and great players get theirs. But we stop them from getting other people easy buckets, and therefore stop them from getting going.

My biggest expectation is 30 minutes for both DFS and Vando in game 2.

Candi can’t play more than 25 minutes his offense is atrocious

Not saying his offense is good, but without him the Lakers defense is… not good enough. Or at least it really wasn’t tonight. Ant can break down any of the LAL big 3, and when they run switching scheme like tonight that is exactly what happened. If you throw Vando at Ant or glue him to someone you will risk “beating you,” and have Vando as the designated helper. Either way, LAL needs size to contain Rudy, Randle, Jaden, and Naz. If it isn’t going to be Hayes, who else but Vando?

[shrink]

Revenge for 2004!
If we can get that this season will be a success!

I’m still bitter about it.

Refs, just because Kobe misses a key basket, it doesn’t automatically mean Wally Sczerbiak must have fouled him!

Wally was the closest Wolf to call a foul on! No contact at all!

[shrink]

We were 21 for 42 from 3s today. We aren't going to shoot like that the next game.

I would not be surprised to continue to see a lot of open three’s - maybe not next game but for most of the series.

If the Lakers want to challenge three point shots, all our guys can drive past them, and they have no interior defense to prevent drives to the baskets, or kick outs.

[KGdaBom]

We were 21 for 42 from 3s today. We aren't going to shoot like that the next game.

I would not be surprised to continue to see a lot of open three’s - maybe not next game but for most of the series.

If the Lakers want to challenge three point shots, all our guys can drive past them, and they have no interior defense to prevent drives to the baskets, or kick outs.

We are simply a terrible match up for the Fakers. They simply can't counter our skills.