2025 NBA PLAYOFFS West First Round: #3 LA Lakers vs #6 Minnesota Timberwolves (MIN leads 1-0)

[MikRay]

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Homer! Lol this is why it’s a bad idea to have a beat writer (blind homer) from the state of Minnesota covering the team

LA in 5

[Jta444]

Wtf is up with Gobert? How is he still in the league and how did he become multi DPOY? He a lanky awkward moving stick he got put in a blender by Luka last year feet all crossed up

And what happened to “we got Jaden McDaniels”? Absolutely no improvement this year despite Towns being shipped out and having more opportunities, he turned out to be a bum

Naz Reid is okay but he wastes his height and plays small, all he does is shoot the ball but inside he’s soft and can’t defend. So his size is nothing and isn’t felt on the court

Ant Edwards is okay, but got no killer instinct. He’s always smiling out there and not taking the game seriously

Randle is another softie who plays smaller than his size…

[Jta444]

Well of course the Lakers are gonna win, they got a stacked team after the most lopsided trade of all time. The two most entitled spoiled fanbases have converged - Lebron and the Lake Show. They always want the best players despite already having a stacked team, and they always blame the refs when things don’t go their way. These fanbases never really felt a real “earned” championship. They are frontrunners stacking the deck rather than fighting fair. Lebron and Lakers are the same they always buy championships.

[ReggiesKnicks]

Jta444, you sound like you beat your wife.

[ReggiesKnicks]

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Homer! Lol this is why it’s a bad idea to have a beat writer (blind homer) from the state of Minnesota covering the team

LA in 5

Post Objective stats

"What a homer!"

[cupcakesnake]

Watching the post-trade Lakers, I don't think it's going to be our size that messes them up. The Lakers play a ton of big wing and power forward sized dudes (Rui, Lebron, Luka, DFS, Vando) who are strong, and paint protection is their #1 goal. They know they aren't tall, and don't have much vertical defense, so they back the paint with strong bodies and dare you to try to bully them. Teams that go into games wanting to dominate the Lakers in the paint, often find it's what the Lakers want. They've played some effective defense this way.

On the flip side, the Lakers really sell out to get this paint protection. They dare you to shoot threes, and hope for good shooting luck and/or unaggressive shooting. It's very similar to what the Mavs did to OKC in the playoffs last year, and OKC was a little too gun shy (they badly wanted to crack that paint defense). The Wolves have been a strong 3-point shooting team this year (top 5 in attempts and percentage). Ant, DDV, Naz, and Conley are all ready to hoist. Randle is a meh shooter, but he has no problem being an aggressive one, and if you leave him open, he'll happily take 8-10 threes and on the right night he'll hit 4-5. Unless the Wolves have some flat out atrocious shooting luck, they're going to force the Lakers out of their base scheme. DFS and Vando are happy to chase over screens, but Lebron and Luka very much want to stay in the paint. The Lakers are going to get forced into longer rotations than they want. Once their paint shell is broken, Rudy could become a problem on the offensive glass. He'll be a 7'1" man with a 7'8" wingspan playing in a series where the tallest opponent is 6'10" with a 7'3" wingspan. Rudy can only hurt you so much though, and the Lakers can stop him if they want. It will be hard though, to guard the 3-point line and protect the paint. The Wolves are aggressive shooting, but they're also aggressive driving. If they play well, they can stretch the Lakers defense out and rip it to shreds. The moment the Lakers decide they have to guard the perimeter more, Jaden and Randle will drive it down their throat.

Flipping again, the Lakers have a big advantage because Luka is completely bothered by length in pick & roll play. Any time Luka sees a guy like Gobert (or Zubac... any guy who is bigger than they are quick), his eyes light up. Luka completely smashed apart the Jaden/Gobert combo in pick & roll last year, generating lob dunks and corner threes at will. I haven't recovered from watching that. Finch, Gobert, Jaden... could not figure out an adjustment to stop it. This wasn't a "Gobert bad at playoff defense" kind of thing like fans say. Gobert was excellent in those coverages. Luka just... I dunno man, you just can't let him play undisrupted pick & roll like that. He's just really good against rim protection heavy teams, like no one I've ever seen.

I fear the Lakers. I fear Luka's pick & roll game, and Lebron's puzzle solving. I think there's a big BBIQ advantage the Lakers have where Luka and Lebron as so much smarter than Ant and Randle. I feel we're the more likely team to play bad or have a meltdown. However... I think the Wolves are the better team with more strategic advantages. Wolves are bigger, more athletic, faster, with more firepower. If there is some sort of Randle meltdown or cold shooting, I can see the Lakers humiliating us. If both teams show up and play their games, I think Wolves in 6.

[cupcakesnake]

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Homer! Lol this is why it’s a bad idea to have a beat writer (blind homer) from the state of Minnesota covering the team

LA in 5

Post Objective stats

"What a homer!"

Ya media bias in the Wolves favor will be out of control this series

[WestbrookGOATed]

Wolves in 6. Lakers have no bigs. Wish they could both lose.

Look at this ray of sunshine...

I'm a Thunder fan. I've hated the Lakers since the day I started watching basketball, most annoying fans on the planet with the Cowboys a close 2nd, always babied by the refs and the NBA and they're the main topic of discussion even when they aren't relevant. The Wolves are the Thunders rivals and have voiced their dislike for Shai, so **** em.

[Liam_Gallagher]

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[Bob8]

Watching the post-trade Lakers, I don't think it's going to be our size that messes them up. The Lakers play a ton of big wing and power forward sized dudes (Rui, Lebron, Luka, DFS, Vando) who are strong, and paint protection is their #1 goal. They know they aren't tall, and don't have much vertical defense, so they back the paint with strong bodies and dare you to try to bully them. Teams that go into games wanting to dominate the Lakers in the paint, often find it's what the Lakers want. They've played some effective defense this way.

On the flip side, the Lakers really sell out to get this paint protection. They dare you to shoot threes, and hope for good shooting luck and/or unaggressive shooting. It's very similar to what the Mavs did to OKC in the playoffs last year, and OKC was a little too gun shy (they badly wanted to crack that paint defense). The Wolves have been a strong 3-point shooting team this year (top 5 in attempts and percentage). Ant, DDV, Naz, and Conley are all ready to hoist. Randle is a meh shooter, but he has no problem being an aggressive one, and if you leave him open, he'll happily take 8-10 threes and on the right night he'll hit 4-5. Unless the Wolves have some flat out atrocious shooting luck, they're going to force the Lakers out of their base scheme. DFS and Vando are happy to chase over screens, but Lebron and Luka very much want to stay in the paint. The Lakers are going to get forced into longer rotations than they want. Once their paint shell is broken, Rudy could become a problem on the offensive glass. He'll be a 7'1" man with a 7'8" wingspan playing in a series where the tallest opponent is 6'10" with a 7'3" wingspan. Rudy can only hurt you so much though, and the Lakers can stop him if they want. It will be hard though, to guard the 3-point line and protect the paint. The Wolves are aggressive shooting, but they're also aggressive driving. If they play well, they can stretch the Lakers defense out and rip it to shreds. The moment the Lakers decide they have to guard the perimeter more, Jaden and Randle will drive it down their throat.

Flipping again, the Lakers have a big advantage because Luka is completely bothered by length in pick & roll play. Any time Luka sees a guy like Gobert (or Zubac... any guy who is bigger than they are quick), his eyes light up. Luka completely smashed apart the Jaden/Gobert combo in pick & roll last year, generating lob dunks and corner threes at will. I haven't recovered from watching that. Finch, Gobert, Jaden... could not figure out an adjustment to stop it. This wasn't a "Gobert bad at playoff defense" kind of thing like fans say. Gobert was excellent in those coverages. Luka just... I dunno man, you just can't let him play undisrupted pick & roll like that. He's just really good against rim protection heavy teams, like no one I've ever seen.

I fear the Lakers. I fear Luka's pick & roll game, and Lebron's puzzle solving. I think there's a big BBIQ advantage the Lakers have where Luka and Lebron as so much smarter than Ant and Randle. I feel we're the more likely team to play bad or have a meltdown. However... I think the Wolves are the better team with more strategic advantages. Wolves are bigger, more athletic, faster, with more firepower. If there is some sort of Randle meltdown or cold shooting, I can see the Lakers humiliating us. If both teams show up and play their games, I think Wolves in 6.

I agree with majority of your comments, but I believe you still don't understand transformation Lakers had after the trade. The best example is 3s. Before ASB Lakers were shooting 34.5 3s, 25th in the league, with 35.6%. After all star break Lakers are shooting 40.4 3s, 7th most in the league, 38.6%, 5th best %. Difference is huge, Luka is just creating big volume of wide open 3s.

The other point is, they will double Ant as much as possible, but they won't compromise the whole perimeter D for that, they will just leave open your worst shooter. Bet is really simple, limit Ant in shooting and drives and see, if your worst shooter can hit open shots, while doing that you know Ant will force a lot of shots, because it's no way his ego can survive scoring less than 15 points a game. JJ is doing some basketball psychological damage.

[shrink]

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Homer! Lol this is why it’s a bad idea to have a beat writer (blind homer) from the state of Minnesota covering the team

LA in 5

Yes, giving out the actual stats is clearly what homers do.

[Bob8]

Read on Twitter

Homer! Lol this is why it’s a bad idea to have a beat writer (blind homer) from the state of Minnesota covering the team

LA in 5

Yes, giving out the actual stats is clearly what homers do.

Stats may be actual but difficult of schedule wasn't.

[life_saver]

Ant is the most blitzed player in the league this season....so doubling/blitzing Ant is not gonna be a new thing. He has seen that a ton this season. He had his struggles but also has made improvements

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[MikRay]

Homer! Lol this is why it’s a bad idea to have a beat writer (blind homer) from the state of Minnesota covering the team

LA in 5

Post Objective stats

"What a homer!"

Ya media bias in the Wolves favor will be out of control this series

He is from Minnesota lol

He’s a fan not an objective observer

[pepe1991]

I guess there is simply more Lakers / Doncic / Lebron fans out there than Wolves fans to write here, but some of takes are very hot.

Wolves didn't lose to Mavs last year because Luka averaged 50 ppg, he had great series but he didn't break it. Mavs incredible defense did.
Mavs big outplayed Towns & Gobert and their elite wing defenders disrupted Wolves offense.
Mavs team was louded with two-way wings, at almost every point of a game, they had at least two wing defenders in.
Mavs defense was so elite that despite fact they took 38 shots less than Wolves, they still made 9 shots total more.

Lakers defense isn't even average since ASG. It's 17# in nba.

Lakers have 1 wing defender in Smith and even he isn't that elite. That's pretty much all they have on defensive end.
Jarred Vanderbilt isn't playoffs playable for long, Rui last year in playoffs was two-way joke and punchline. Hayes was removed from rotation.
Reaves and Doncic are liabilities on defense, Lebron doesn't have stamina due age.
And nobody on Lakers can protect paint. Matter of fact Lakers have 0 capable defenders taller than 6'8. And worst C rotation in nba.



Even in games Lakers won, they were still ran over by elite ball handlers who can beat first line of defense. Because second line doesn't even exist. And they can't defend transition at all.
Lakers won lot of games in post Doncic era by dumping 40 threes a game ( top 10 most taken ) while having ability to shoot near 38% ( top 10 in accuracy & 3FGM ). Matter of fact 48% of all shots Lakers are taking are 3s. That also isn't really winning playoff formula. Maybe for team louded with uber elite 3 point shooters, but Lakers aren't that. They are definition of average.


Lakers can still win this series, Wolves have own set of problems. Both teams are mediocre against winning teams, Randle and Gobert are odd fit. Wolves don't have reliable second scoring option.

Whoever forces other team to adjust , will be in driver's seat to win a series.

But this will be 6 games series at least.

[Wolfgang630]

Need Minnesota to steal game 1.

[cupcakesnake]

Wtf is up with Gobert? How is he still in the league and how did he become multi DPOY? He a lanky awkward moving stick he got put in a blender by Luka last year feet all crossed up

And what happened to “we got Jaden McDaniels”? Absolutely no improvement this year despite Towns being shipped out and having more opportunities, he turned out to be a bum

Naz Reid is okay but he wastes his height and plays small, all he does is shoot the ball but inside he’s soft and can’t defend. So his size is nothing and isn’t felt on the court

Ant Edwards is okay, but got no killer instinct. He’s always smiling out there and not taking the game seriously

Randle is another softie who plays smaller than his size…

You didn't watch the Wolves this year if you think Jaden didn't improve. He had a really slow start to this season as the Wolves struggled in general, but we're going on 4 months now of Jaden being awesome. Finch finally let him start attacking off the bounce, and he's been murdering teams on closeouts ever since. He also added some improved rim protection to his defense this year, making him one of the most versatile defenders in the league. When Gobert went down, Jaden was our primary rim protector. Jaden didn't break out and become a star, but functionally he added a ton to his game and is one of the biggest reason our season didn't go down the toilet.

The Gobert haters are getting embarrassing. It doesn't matter what he does. Doesn't matter how many top 5 defenses he anchors (regardless of roster), doesn't matter how many single game defensive masterclasses he puts on (y'all don't watch T-Wolves games), doesn't matter how many video breakdowns or statistical breakdowns people give you showing he's one of the defensive GOATs... some of you will watch one clip where he looks "lanky awkward" and give your garbage takes for eternity. There just isn't even an argument against Gobert's defensive argument. It's just vibes for you. Gobert-haters are like flat earthers at this point. (Just FYI, Minnesota won the Gobert minutes in that Dallas series. They just blew us out every time Gobert went to the bench.)

Naz Reid can shoot the ball, true. He's also a slick ball handler who can drive and destroy people in the post. We need him to be a shooter on this roster, because Rudy/Randle/Jaden clog the paint a bit. Anytime Naz gets unleased, he does it all as a scorer.

[Klomp]

I agree with majority of your comments, but I believe you still don't understand transformation Lakers had after the trade. The best example is 3s. Before ASB Lakers were shooting 34.5 3s, 25th in the league, with 35.6%. After all star break Lakers are shooting 40.4 3s, 7th most in the league, 38.6%, 5th best %. Difference is huge, Luka is just creating big volume of wide open 3s.

That's good to know, but it's worth pointing out Minnesota's defense is Top 7 in 3-point defense in 3PM (3rd), 3PA (7th) and 3P% (6th). Minnesota is better equipped to get out to 3-point shooters than last year's group.

[Klomp]

Homer! Lol this is why it’s a bad idea to have a beat writer (blind homer) from the state of Minnesota covering the team

LA in 5

Yes, giving out the actual stats is clearly what homers do.

Stats may be actual but difficult of schedule wasn't.

Since March 1:
Wolves: 17-4
Lakers: 13-11

Lakers stretch included losses to Brooklyn, Chicago (x2), Orlando and Portland.

[Jta444]

Watching the post-trade Lakers, I don't think it's going to be our size that messes them up. The Lakers play a ton of big wing and power forward sized dudes (Rui, Lebron, Luka, DFS, Vando) who are strong, and paint protection is their #1 goal. They know they aren't tall, and don't have much vertical defense, so they back the paint with strong bodies and dare you to try to bully them. Teams that go into games wanting to dominate the Lakers in the paint, often find it's what the Lakers want. They've played some effective defense this way.

On the flip side, the Lakers really sell out to get this paint protection. They dare you to shoot threes, and hope for good shooting luck and/or unaggressive shooting. It's very similar to what the Mavs did to OKC in the playoffs last year, and OKC was a little too gun shy (they badly wanted to crack that paint defense). The Wolves have been a strong 3-point shooting team this year (top 5 in attempts and percentage). Ant, DDV, Naz, and Conley are all ready to hoist. Randle is a meh shooter, but he has no problem being an aggressive one, and if you leave him open, he'll happily take 8-10 threes and on the right night he'll hit 4-5. Unless the Wolves have some flat out atrocious shooting luck, they're going to force the Lakers out of their base scheme. DFS and Vando are happy to chase over screens, but Lebron and Luka very much want to stay in the paint. The Lakers are going to get forced into longer rotations than they want. Once their paint shell is broken, Rudy could become a problem on the offensive glass. He'll be a 7'1" man with a 7'8" wingspan playing in a series where the tallest opponent is 6'10" with a 7'3" wingspan. Rudy can only hurt you so much though, and the Lakers can stop him if they want. It will be hard though, to guard the 3-point line and protect the paint. The Wolves are aggressive shooting, but they're also aggressive driving. If they play well, they can stretch the Lakers defense out and rip it to shreds. The moment the Lakers decide they have to guard the perimeter more, Jaden and Randle will drive it down their throat.

Flipping again, the Lakers have a big advantage because Luka is completely bothered by length in pick & roll play. Any time Luka sees a guy like Gobert (or Zubac... any guy who is bigger than they are quick), his eyes light up. Luka completely smashed apart the Jaden/Gobert combo in pick & roll last year, generating lob dunks and corner threes at will. I haven't recovered from watching that. Finch, Gobert, Jaden... could not figure out an adjustment to stop it. This wasn't a "Gobert bad at playoff defense" kind of thing like fans say. Gobert was excellent in those coverages. Luka just... I dunno man, you just can't let him play undisrupted pick & roll like that. He's just really good against rim protection heavy teams, like no one I've ever seen.

I fear the Lakers. I fear Luka's pick & roll game, and Lebron's puzzle solving. I think there's a big BBIQ advantage the Lakers have where Luka and Lebron as so much smarter than Ant and Randle. I feel we're the more likely team to play bad or have a meltdown. However... I think the Wolves are the better team with more strategic advantages. Wolves are bigger, more athletic, faster, with more firepower. If there is some sort of Randle meltdown or cold shooting, I can see the Lakers humiliating us. If both teams show up and play their games, I think Wolves in 6.

I agree with majority of your comments, but I believe you still don't understand transformation Lakers had after the trade. The best example is 3s. Before ASB Lakers were shooting 34.5 3s, 25th in the league, with 35.6%. After all star break Lakers are shooting 40.4 3s, 7th most in the league, 38.6%, 5th best %. Difference is huge, Luka is just creating big volume of wide open 3s.

The other point is, they will double Ant as much as possible, but they won't compromise the whole perimeter D for that, they will just leave open your worst shooter. Bet is really simple, limit Ant in shooting and drives and see, if your worst shooter can hit open shots, while doing that you know Ant will force a lot of shots, because it's no way his ego can survive scoring less than 15 points a game. JJ is doing some basketball psychological damage.

Why you all analyze this stuff is beyond me. It’s pretty quite simple. Lebron has again forced a trade for a superstar. Of course he will have all these advantages. He has another top 5-10 player to relieve him of pressure both on the court and mentally. It’s funny how Lebron fans always analyze these things and all that as if they understand the game - the game is simple for Lebron, acquire the best talent - that is his best ability. That’s why he calls himself the smartest high IQ player in basketball because before he even steps foot on the court he’s already won with his stacked team.