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

[Chocolate City Jordanaire]

Darvin Ham got to the WCF his first year

He's gotta be loving this series.

[SlimShady83]

imo would trade lebron for what every value he has and rebuild around luka. why drag it out? maybe when the cavs lose, trade lebron back there for some good pieces and for hte cavs you hope lebrons experience can help the cavs star get a chip. too much money tied to lebron in la whne luka has to get max too.

[Pistol_Pete]

imo would trade lebron for what every value he has and rebuild around luka. why drag it out? maybe when the cavs lose, trade lebron back there for some good pieces and for hte cavs you hope lebrons experience can help the cavs star get a chip. too much money tied to lebron in la whne luka has to get max too.

Russell Westbrook for Lebron. Denver would consider it.

[f4p]

Respect to Lebron for going 48 minutes and still playing both sides.

Truly GOAT

GOAT’s don’t flame out in the first round when they have a top 3 player in the league trying to carry the team.

He's 40 years old averaging 26/10/6 on 51/39/82 splits lmao I don't even like LeBron but it's insane that people are calling him out for this series. There is no 40 year old in NBA history who could do what he's doing right now.

MJ at age 40 was getting it handed to him by the *checks notes* 2003 Eastern Conference!! Maybe the worst conference in the last 35 years.

[Jta444]

I predicted Wolves in five at the outset, and the series is playing out that way.

It was clear after the Luka deal that the Lakers were short on size and depth, so a true title push was never in the cards.

And expecting a 40-year-old logging 46 minutes to single-handedly drag his team to victory—something none of his peers at that age have ever been asked to do—is simply unrealistic. But trolls will troll.

Not our fault he’s still stuck at 4 championships hence he still needs to play at 40.

Jordan wasn’t playing for anything anymore at that age, he already got not 1 but 2 three peats in his career, nothing left to prove at that point unlike Bron who surely wants one more.

Well, 4 chips is nothing to sneeze at. That's more championships than the whole Mavs organization.

Besides, threepeating twice in the expansion era isn't as great as you make it out to be.

Cope hard today my boy, i aint even much of a Mavs fan. Nice try though. Your GOAT gonna need 7 games in the 1st round haha. He aint used to this. Welcome to the Westside. This aint no cakewalk East. No 1st round sweep and gimmes.

On that note, should we now review and asterisk all of Lebron’s titles in the East? If he played in the West as we see in his past 5 years, it would have taken more out of him leaving him with less energy for later rounds/Finals, if he would have even gotten there.

So we might now know the secret to Lebron’s great performances in the Finals before. It’s because he could coast in the East playoffs. That’s why he was always so fresh come Finals time.

I thought before it was PED’s. But I think it was the easy competition. He couldn’t do much out West and looks so tired out there.

[Handlez]

Edwards is playing determined basketball. He has that same look of determination in his eyes that MJ had in the playoffs.

I think the Lakers are in trouble.

Lol another next Jordan.

It's not going to happen in our lifetimes.

[KGDirkTD_Fan]

I will say this is one of those deceptive 3-1 leads, where the road team is up. Lakers will be favored in 2 of the 3 potential remaining games. If Minnesota lets their foot off the gas in game 5 and loses, suddenly game 6 becomes criticial to avoid going back to LA tied for game 7 (where the Lakers would be favored).

Wolves need to be greedy and come out early in game 5 with a strong punch to put this thing away.

Same worry here. Much like in Game 2, they played contented already knowing they stole G1 and HC advantage. i’d rather see them go for the kill in G5 in LA too.


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Maybe they'll play Bron 48 minutes this time to give them a shot...lol. I really don't know how they could get the energy to see this through.

[f4p]

If you started watching basketball in 2005, probably.

Sorry. I go back to Kareem and Wilt. I love Pistol Pete by the way. Shame he died so young.

The longevity is unquestionable, but their individual peaks are. MJ simply had another gear to him when he faced adversity, Lebron doesn’t have it.

And yes; Pistol was the man.

Yes watching MJ take down a 73 win team from down 3-1 was pretty amazing adversity to watch him overcome.

[KGdaBom]

And you're underestimating how good OKC is. And OKC is just as deep or deeper. This isn't even a debate.

If you think the Wolves have a real shot against the Thunder I have a bridge to sell you. Hope you have some money on the Wolves making it to the finals because the pay out has to be rather large. That's how much of a long shot it is.

OKC is very formidable. I'm not underestimating that at all. However, the Wolves have been rolling for a long time now and might be ready for OKC.

Nobody is ready for OKC thus far. They're a 68 win team that just swept their first challenge. This has little to do with the Wolves or any other team has done and all about what OKC has done thus far. They're in a league of their own in the Western conference till proven otherwise. Maybe when they're down in a series 1-3 or similar then I'd get it. Till then, they've proven at least that they're in a class of their own in this conference and no other team is close.

If I were to place a bet right now even odds OKC is the team I'd bet on. I live right by a casino I should go check what Kind of odds I could get betting on the Wolves. Give me 10-1 would be good enough to put $100 on it.

[zshawn10]

Silver has to be fuming. Gifted Luka to the lakers and they about to lose in the first round as a 3 seed. /s

[SweetTouch]

Can anyone explain when it matters

When I see a player hand gets hit

They always say hand is part of the ball

Is it up to what the ref decides

[Romeiro Celtic]

I thought the Lakers were the ones winning it all? (green font)

[BigDan245]

People were picking the Lakers to challenge OKC...To blame Pelinka is lazy. JJ is the coach and needs to be better at his rotations point blank. Does that mean they will win the series? No, but throwing guys out there all game against a much younger team is absolutely the wrong play.

[Jazz9]

I had Minny today and them winning in 6 but I could see the series being over Wednesday.
I think the players, just like the Lakers' fans, have come to the realization that they're not going anywhere this year anyway.

They're just not built for a deep playoff run.
They're top heavy, have no bigs and their role players are unreliable. Not exactly a recipe for success.
Look at Minny/OKC/Boston/Cleveland, that's how you build a team nowadays.

I know it's never gonna happen but if I'm a Lakers fan I'd want them to fasttrack the rebuild.
It's weird to say because he's still playing at a high level but I just can't see a 41yo LeBron+Luka led team as a real contender next year.
Lakers have a lot of work to do if they want to convince Luka to stay long term.
Gotta build a roster tailor made for him. Pretty sure Luka would have loved playing on that Wolves team if the reported trade with And went through for example.

[firedavidkahn]

Curry and Jimmy are next.

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[Eightnineborn]

Nothing better than seeing Lakers and Celtics lose… go MAGIC

[Patches Perry]

Can anyone explain when it matters

When I see a player hand gets hit

They always say hand is part of the ball

Is it up to what the ref decides

I'm not saying it's always called properly, but usually they call it if hitting the hand causes the ball to come out or impacts the shot, and won't call it if the ball was hit first and/or came loose before the hand was hit.

[Jta444]

GOAT’s don’t flame out in the first round when they have a top 3 player in the league trying to carry the team.

He's 40 years old averaging 26/10/6 on 51/39/82 splits lmao I don't even like LeBron but it's insane that people are calling him out for this series. There is no 40 year old in NBA history who could do what he's doing right now.

MJ at age 40 was getting it handed to him by the *checks notes* 2003 Eastern Conference!! Maybe the worst conference in the last 35 years.

MJ at 40 had 6 championships three-peating twice. He don’t need to dive his 40 year old ass on the floor like Lebron lol. Dude looks a pity out there still trying his hardest to catch Mike.

[Chocolate City Jordanaire]

America wins

I don't know. I feel like 25%-50% of casual fans love to rock Lakers' gear. That might be a conservative estimate.

Celtics, Knicks, and Lakers are America's teams IMO.

Knicks?

No chance. Worthless franchise in comparison to the other two who are storied. The Knicks just play in a big market like the Rockets, Warriors, and Sixers.

I should have said Warriors.

[Revived]

Darvin Ham got to the WCF his first year

He's gotta be loving this series.

Westbrook and Dlo too.