2025 NBA PLAYOFFS West First Round: #3 LA Lakers vs #6 Minnesota Timberwolves (Series tied 1-1)

[NBA_is_cringe]

This forum has more conspiracy theorists than basketball fans.

the world isn't actually fair and the rules don't apply rich/powerful people, this is only shocking or unbelievable to idiots

[MrGoat]

Man there are some absolute buffoons in every laker thread man.

We had more fouls Wolves had more free throws. Luka got intentionally leg locked by Mcdaniels no flagrant. Naz reid threw the ball away and should have gotten a second delay of game, nothing.

Ah these **** refs man they keep rigging it for the lakers.

Now you know what it was like to be a Mavs fan last season, you'll never know what it's like to be one this season because the closest thing to that would be being a Magic fan after their ownership was so cheap they let Shaq walk. And don't get me started on the reffing in the Finals last season. Yall might actually be immune from that if you get there

[levon]

How talented is this Reaves kid

https://www.reddit.com/r/lakers/comments/1k5qdy5/reaves_watches_reaves_hit_toughhh_middy_reaction/

[durden_tyler]

Luka was purposely tripped.

Bron was purposely slapped in the face.

Both flagrants.

That's full on Draymond style... they were out for blood all night.

Read on Twitter

Basketball gods don't look lightly on this kind of malicious action.

If that’s true Draymond would have zero titles. LOL

Now that we have proven that as false, the better team wins, without influences from gods, Wolves in Six!


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[Kurtz]

They need to give Mcdaniels a game just to show that you can't hunt superstars.

[durden_tyler]

They need to give Mcdaniels a game just to show that you can't hunt superstars.

No they do not. Lakers are just scared that McDaniels will explode again like in Game 1. LOL


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[sp6r=underrated]

REF BALL.

There were way too many fouls called. Compare it to other recent playoff games (like today’s). It just destroys the game. And then the calls they did make were often wrong.

The refs completely took away the wolves bench. Naz and Dante got called for some really cheap foils in the first half and got completely out of rhythm. I don't think I even saw Dante in the 2nd half.

If the refs were trying to help the lakers win they would ensure the Lakers shoot more FTs. It isn't hard to call fouls basketball games. And yet these corrupt refs who want Minnesota to lose gave them 25% more free throws. Why?

A lot of people on realgm have the weirdest viewing habits. They think refs, on their own or by league orders, actively try to fix games. Despite this they care about the outcomes of the games.

If the games are fixed the outcomes have no legitimacy, you shouldn't care at all. Or you should view games the way you watch a movie at home.

instead you all get emotionally invested in games that you believe are fixed which is moronic.

[Dan33185]

Wolves played one of the worst games they could have played and are going to lose by about 10...I'm not as discouraged as I thought I would be.

Congrats on your moral victory, I guess.

Yeah weird take when they lost wire to wire, often down between 15-20 points.

Also Wolves fans banking on HCA is kind of silly when Luka's been an underdog and on the road his whole career. I'm thinking this goes 7 and no idea who wins.

Outside of the first 6-8 minutes of the game, the Wolves outscored them, so I guess that's my reason for optimism. But, I guess I'll just admit defeat and say the Wolves will probably not win again this season, in fact, they probably will get blown out by 20 in the next 3 games.

[Jazz9]

Man if Luka had better conditioning and was a touch lighter on his feet (shed a few pounds, not too much though, gotta still be able to bully defenders) he'd be that much better.
Look at how he starts most games. Goes nuclear and then as the game goes on he loses steam a little too much too soon this year
Would even help him on defense

[CIN-C-STAR]

11-54 3-point shooting is wild
In particular Minny went 5-25, when they were top 5 this season in volume and percentage.
Feels like an outlier performance to me.
Luka will do his thang but I still feel like Minny in 6.

[scrabbarista]

We haven't had a good shooting game yet. We won strictly of off our defense this game. Lebrons steal was huge.

Also Lebron missing like 6 shots in a row where 4 of them were like bunnies was horrendous to watch.

Reaves looked better in the end but we still need more from him.

LeBron's steal? Did it ever get closer than 9 points from the 5:00 mark of the first quarter to the end of the game?

I'm confused. Did anything exciting happen in this game? I'm genuinely curious, because I stopped watching right about at that 5:00 mark.

[scrabbarista]

That's full on Draymond style... they were out for blood all night.

Read on Twitter

Basketball gods don't look lightly on this kind of malicious action.

If that’s true Draymond would have zero titles. LOL

Now that we have proven that as false, the better team wins, without influences from gods, Wolves in Six!


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Pretty sure by "gods" he meant league executives, and by "malicious action" he meant being a Timberwolf.

[MrBigShot]

The league needs to take a look at that McDaniels trip and suspend him. You can't have guys trying to intentionally injure the opposing star player.

[Lakers In 5]

The jury remains out if he is a championship level coach long term, but after seeing Darvin Hamas stand on the sidelines with his hands in his pockets for years this is so refreshing.

[Andri]

Considering the Lakers' current roster limitations—particularly the lack of size and depth at the center position—it's crucial that Reaves consistently steps up as the team's second-leading scorer if they want to make a deep run.

LeBron's scoring ability comes in bursts, and while he can still facilitate plays for others, he can no longer handle a heavy scoring load, not even as the secondary option. He's now better suited to scoring within the natural flow of the game, ideally as a third option.

[shrink]

Do you Lakers fans realize how pathetic you look, when you complain that the refs aren’t making enough calls in YOUR favor?

Yikes. Take the win, but don’t be tools complaining that an unfair ref advantage you have over all other teams isn’t big enough.

[shrink]

I just stopped by to congratulate last night’s biggest winner … Bob!

Way to go, buddy!

[RB34]

The jury remains out if he is a championship level coach long term, but after seeing Darvin Hamas stand on the sidelines with his hands in his pockets for years this is so refreshing.

Darvin Hamas

[Archx]

JJ coaching like an EU coach is refreshing to see. Not being afraid to call out anyone on the team and yell at them to wake them up.

Also, i said after game 1, why would ANT already taunt Luka? That's just looking for trouble. I remember Wolves fans had a reddit post last season begging everyone to not say a word to him and that guy in the front row didn't listen and then the poster shot over Gobert happened

[leolozon]

Do you Lakers fans realize how pathetic you look, when you complain that the refs aren’t making enough calls in YOUR favor?

Yikes. Take the win, but don’t be tools complaining that an unfair ref advantage you have over all other teams isn’t big enough.

To be fair, it looks like the pro Wolves crowd started the debate by complaining that the refs were favouring the Lakers in the game. What do you expect them to do, not push back against a narrative that was false for this game?