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

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[KGDirkTD_Fan]

But with a 40+ year old Lebron and even less assets. They have, 2 1st rounders they can trade this summer? They have to make it count and hope Lebron keeps outpacing father time

Yep. LeBron is the elephant in the room because at his age, can he perform to 50m/year expectations? If not, he is eating up too much space and preventing them from doing anything. They just have to hope to get lucky with free agents taking paycuts or finding hidden gems. LeBron will need to take a pay cut.

This is going to seem like a hot take after this Lakers loss, but I was telling a friend earlier that it wouldn't surprise me if Luka plays out his contract and goes back to Dallas in 2027 (assuming Nico is gone).

"LeBron's contract will be an abatross, pushing Luka to leave LA for Dallas in 2027 where 34 year old AD will be making the same amount as LeBron, but definitely won't be an albatross"

If Luka leaves LAL, he could just go to a team where ownership actually wants him, and has more win now potential, instead of back to the ownership that didn't want him, and traded him away after a Finals appearance.

I know the Lakers has a culture/marketing thing with keeping superstars happy but they really need to evaluate how much of the team needs to be built around keeping a 40 year old LeBron at superstar rates vs just going all in on a Luka-centric team. I don't know how they do that without either LeBron retiring or taking a friendly deal. LeBron probably would be really amazing if he can play 20 solid minutes I don't know if that's even feasible with how the cap works now.

[mademan]

My fav theory is that Lebron is gonna keep playing until he secures Bronny a 2nd contract. What is that, another 2 years?

[BIGJ1ER]

Minnesota is a really poor matchup for Lebron. This was never going to be a series for him.

The issue for LA is they need to win the Luka minutes convincingly, since the lebron/no luka minutes have been bad most the season. For minny, Conley seems like a guy who will only play spot minutes, so staying afloat during his minutes is also key.

Also will want a cushion going into fourth quarters since you'd trust LAL to execute better down the stretch.

I'd be matching Rudy minutes when vando is on the court moving forward if I'm finch. Hayes has to play if you're reddick, you're at too much of a size disadvantage and minny picked apart your strong side stacking scheme with their athletes today. Yes they won't shoot that hot all series, but they're getting penetration at will, and there were a bunch of possessions they could've made better decisions on themselves.

Really impressed with McDaniels, was making the right decision off the catch over and over again, his leap on the glass has been huge this season too. His coverage against Luka in the pnr was good. I'd be living with the shots luka was generating in q1, make him beat you with pu3s, his 2pt scoring has looked shaky since coming to LA.

Also the shouts in this thread to bench Reaves are hilarious. Yes he's struggled with the ant matchup this year, so thats not ideal, but you have no better options. Vincent is worse. I think Reaves is fairly redundant next to luka though, I'd probably look to trade him before the next big contract, and I'd assume he's gone this offseason. LAL roster is very unbalanced, is going to take a year or two to put something viable next to luka (if they even have the assets for that with lebron aging out).

Would not be surprised to see luka walk at the end of his deal

[baller16]

Minny shot 51% from 3 with 21 made 3's. Every team in the league would lose to that type of hot shooting.

[dWadeOwnzYou]

Just maybe the Wolves are tired of hearing how Luka is the Wolves killer and that they come in as the underdog, despite the fact that both team season records are nearly identical. I bet that lit a fire under their a$$.

[Sealab2024]

I love the fact that they're putting Jaden on Luka and being like "you are gonna get absolutely destroyed. We take you getting destroyed as a team cause that way we win". And Jadens just like " I play defense. My job is to take the best of us straight into the mud".

[KyRo23]

Minny shot 51% from 3 with 21 made 3's. Every team in the league would lose to that type of hot shooting.

It’s more about how Minny was getting them. Lakers are forced to over help since they kept isolating Reaves and Luka, which lead to wide open 3s. Not sure what JJs plan will be for next game, but they cannot have that

[Tracymcgoaty]

Minny shot 51% from 3 with 21 made 3's. Every team in the league would lose to that type of hot shooting.

It’s more about how Minny was getting them. Lakers are forced to over help since they kept isolating Reaves and Luka, which lead to wide open 3s. Not sure what JJs plan will be for next game, but they cannot have that

I'd bench reaves for DFS.

Or Gabe. Either way lineup needs to be shuffled.

[tamaraw08]

If I'm Redick I'm looking at this rotation heavily:

Luka
Gabe
Jordan
LeBron
Doe
Vando
(Some Rui)
.
.
Less:

Reaves
Hayes

Goodwin's energy could help IMO. Having LD/AR/LJ together on the court after the first rotation may not be the way to go here.

Who is Jordan and Doe?

Jordan Goodloss, I mean Goodwin and Philsbiry Doe-Boy

[baller16]

Minny shot 51% from 3 with 21 made 3's. Every team in the league would lose to that type of hot shooting.

It’s more about how Minny was getting them. Lakers are forced to over help since they kept isolating Reaves and Luka, which lead to wide open 3s. Not sure what JJs plan will be for next game, but they cannot have that

Luka and Reaves need to be staggered like crazy. Those 2 playing together is the worst defensive combo I've seen on the perimeter. A little dribble penetration from the opposing team and the game is already over.

[tamaraw08]

Minny shot 51% from 3 with 21 made 3's. Every team in the league would lose to that type of hot shooting.

It’s more about how Minny was getting them. Lakers are forced to over help since they kept isolating Reaves and Luka, which lead to wide open 3s. Not sure what JJs plan will be for next game, but they cannot have that

The plan has always been getting on his knees and praying the other team miss 70% of open 3’s

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[RB34]

Minny shot 51% from 3 with 21 made 3's. Every team in the league would lose to that type of hot shooting.

Their shooting really didn’t seem unsustainable though, they were wide open all game.

[Sealab2024]

L. O. F'ing L. JJ had no way to tell the media "they're GD giants and we can't stop them from grabbing anything we miss".

[HotRocks34]

Just went through some of the footage.

From when Luka came in after the Lakers blew the lead in the second quarter, he had 6 assists opportunities (1 of them a hockey assist) that I saw.

Only one of them led to points, two Reaves free throws late 3Q. The other five were missed shots.

Luka shot 54.5% for the game. The rest of the Lakers shot 34.4%.

If a good scorer has it going and his teammates continue to miss shots from potential assist chances, eventually the scorer is going to think it's in the best interest of the team for him to shoot more and pass less.

That's what happened in G1.

That being said, the Usage numbers were pretty much in line with the season. LD 35 (33 this year with LA), LJ 27 (29) and AR 20 (23).

Guys just missed shots. The turnover number wasn't terrible but the assist number was really low because people just couldn't hit shots.

[HotRocks34]

Credit to Minny. Great plan, great execution.

[Himothy Duncan]

2001 NBA Finals, Game 1. Not worried at all.

[Sealab2024]

Credit to Minny. Great plan, great execution.

There's a chess game being played and the Lakers started without a queen or bishops. There's an element of long term fear here, cause their knights and rooks are unbelievably deadly. we need to put them down and like now. Game 2 is the series.

[EH15]

Both Lebron and Luka have unremarkable game 1 lifetime records. I wouldn't really worry if I was the Lakers unless Wolves actually won game 2.