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

[younggunsmn]

Just floored by the efforts we got tonight from Jaden McDaniels and Naz Reid.
If we can get that consistently, this team has a whole nother level and title talk starts to enter the realm of reality.

Julius, Naz, and Jaden aren't going to combine to go 13/18 from 3 very often.

But that was a great win, great team effort.
We turned their big 3 into jump shooters and limited their foul hunting for the most part.
That's the recipe for success to beat the Lakers.

Was a bit interesting Finch went with the 5-out frontcourt of Naz and Randle in the mid 4th and sat Rudy.
We also sat Rudy through their big run in the 3rd that knocked it from 27 down to 12.

[FrenchMinnyFan]

We are lucky to be ahead. Randle needs to play better. He had a post up against Reaves and passed it out. Good thing Naz hit the 3. Gobert got to do something. If he can't score, maybe punch Luka Just a metaphor to keep attacking Luka, make him play defense.

We had 10 turnovers total. Randle had 7!

That's insane and ANT and Mike having one each in the first 3 min of the game, we had only 1 from player during the whole game except Randle of course.

Jaden and NAZ were huge tonight but for me ANT was MVP level. Take only one bad shoot, 9 Assists... when he is focus he is definitely fantastic.

[TimberKat]

ESPN has our chance of winning at 98.3%

Which is up from the 0% they had, this whole last week.

Those percentages are stupid. We were never 0% and not 98% now. A great win, it is still anyone's series I gave Wolves 65%. But how is that different from 98.3% anyway

[80HD]

Watching the game, Randle was awful tonight. Looking at box score, Randle was pretty good (minus 7 TOs).

Having a big, mobile body like his bang against Luka and Lebron is going to be key this series.

[KGdaBom]

Just floored by the efforts we got tonight from Jaden McDaniels and Naz Reid.
If we can get that consistently, this team has a whole nother level and title talk starts to enter the realm of reality.

Julius, Naz, and Jaden aren't going to combine to go 13/18 from 3 very often.

But that was a great win, great team effort.
We turned their big 3 into jump shooters and limited their foul hunting for the most part.
That's the recipe for success to beat the Lakers.

Was a bit interesting Finch went with the 5-out frontcourt of Naz and Randle in the mid 4th and sat Rudy.
We also sat Rudy through their big run in the 3rd that knocked it from 27 down to 12.

Great post. Many excellent points. If Jaden and Naz can do this consistently we win the title.
It's not likely they can do this consistently.
Interesting that Rudy was on the bench for the Lakers big run.
I think Rudy will play much better. Naz and Jaden will regress to the mean. Ant assuming health will be better and Randle won't have 7 TOs again. We win in 5.

[KGdaBom]

ESPN has our chance of winning at 98.3%

Which is up from the 0% they had, this whole last week.

Those percentages are stupid. We were never 0% and not 98% now. A great win, it is still anyone's series I gave Wolves 65%. But how is that different from 98.3% anyway

ESPN has some analytical computerized formula taking the time remaining and score under consideration that spits out the percentage to win. It's not a biased human prediction.

[TimberKat]

We are lucky to be ahead. Randle needs to play better. He had a post up against Reaves and passed it out. Good thing Naz hit the 3. Gobert got to do something. If he can't score, maybe punch Luka Just a metaphor to keep attacking Luka, make him play defense.

We had 10 turnovers total. Randle had 7!

That's insane and ANT and Mike having one each in the first 3 min of the game, we had only 1 from player during the whole game except Randle of course.

Jaden and NAZ were huge tonight but for me ANT was MVP level. Take only one bad shoot, 9 Assists... when he is focus he is definitely fantastic.

And the guilty party is DDV had the other TO.

[life_saver]

Jaden so far has performed better in playoffs than regular season during all his post-season runs...good start for this year's playoffs

[Ethomasp31]

One down three to go....I would be shocked if the Wolves lost this series. This is the series ANT wanted.

[Domejandro]

Watching the game, Randle was awful tonight. Looking at box score, Randle was pretty good (minus 7 TOs).

Having a big, mobile body like his bang against Luka and Lebron is going to be key this series.

For what it is worth, Julius Randle was mostly great defensively this game. Completely shut down Los Angeles' two stars when he was one-on-one, and moved his feet well on switches.

Dude was a fumble fingers for most of the game offensively, but I was really impressed with his effort defensively.

[KGdaBom]

Watching the game, Randle was awful tonight. Looking at box score, Randle was pretty good (minus 7 TOs).

Having a big, mobile body like his bang against Luka and Lebron is going to be key this series.

Great point. It might be the biggest Xfactor.

[Loaf_of_bread]

Watching the game, Randle was awful tonight. Looking at box score, Randle was pretty good (minus 7 TOs).

Having a big, mobile body like his bang against Luka and Lebron is going to be key this series.

Guy honestly did not play well. He is losing himself millions on a potential contract.

[guest81]

Watching the game, Randle was awful tonight. Looking at box score, Randle was pretty good (minus 7 TOs).

Having a big, mobile body like his bang against Luka and Lebron is going to be key this series.

For what it is worth, Julius Randle was mostly great defensively this game. Completely shut down Los Angeles' two stars when he was one-on-one, and moved his feet well on switches.

Dude was a fumble fingers for most of the game offensively, but I was really impressed with his effort defensively.

Yea it wasn't a kat like meltdown that it looked like out of the gate. But this Donte is why the wolves won the trade. Just excellent all game on both ends

[TimberKat]

Which is up from the 0% they had, this whole last week.

Those percentages are stupid. We were never 0% and not 98% now. A great win, it is still anyone's series I gave Wolves 65%. But how is that different from 98.3% anyway

ESPN has some analytical computerized formula taking the time remaining and score under consideration that spits out the percentage to win. It's not a biased human prediction.

I know how they come up with that but if I tell you 65% chance vs 85% chance and Wolves lose. Does that % make any difference? Maybe for someone who gamble on a bunch of games.

[Nick K]

We are lucky to be ahead. Randle needs to play better. He had a post up against Reaves and passed it out. Good thing Naz hit the 3. Gobert got to do something. If he can't score, maybe punch Luka Just a metaphor to keep attacking Luka, make him play defense.

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.

[Guest84]

This team seems to be a better road team. Hopefully they don’t follow the same pattern as last year against Denver. Don’t let up and step on their throats.

[Nick K]

ESPN has our chance of winning at 98.3%

Which is up from the 0% they had, this whole last week.

Yep. They had the Lakers winning tonight 68% at the tip.

[KGdaBom]

One down three to go....I would be shocked if the Wolves lost this series. This is the series ANT wanted.

I wouldn't be shocked if we lost, but I would be very surprised. I was on record before this game that the Wolves win the series with ease.

[KGdaBom]

ESPN has our chance of winning at 98.3%

Which is up from the 0% they had, this whole last week.

Yep. They had the Lakers winning tonight 68% at the tip.

So I'm not the only person who looks at that.

[younggunsmn]

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.