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

[Petergrifindor]

Any LA fans know why Knecht doesn't have any minutes?

He is not a bad player, I don't get why he doesn't sees any play.

[Exp0sed]

Ant was a beast!! Love seeing his rise.

JJ blew the game.

1) Bad early challenge, never challenge a 50/50 bump call early, the refs hate changing their call. Easily could have used it later.
2) Playing 40 year old LeBron and Luka 46 minutes apiece is insane. The Wolves coming back the 2nd half of the 4th was extremely predictable.

The Lakers have 3 offensive creators with somewhat duplicative skills, it is insane not to give them all rests.

nah, Luka was on his WB impersonation. doing great things and just giving it back with really bad liveball turnovers and missed layups\bunnies

Luka and LBJ didn't look gassed or like they didn't have their legs under them. you can also be sure that LBJ wanted to stay on the court. Lakers have a few decent playable bench pieces, they're not the Nuggets but we saw the Nuggets do the same in game 4, because it's better to play ur starting five 42 mins and have 3 days of rest on a 2-2 count, then play them 37 and effectively end ur season going down 3-1

as for your first point, I disagree it was a 50\50 bump call. it was 100% a foul by Gobert (or a no-call) there was no foul by Reaves, at all.I was shocked the refs stuck by their initial awful call and they reasoned it by arguing that a.) Gobert came to a stop (he didn't) and b.) that Reaves initiated the first contact. rewatch those replays, Gobert 100% is the one who initiated the contact

moreover, JJ challenged it because it was an early 3rd foul on Reaves, which he was 100% sure would get overturned. refs committed malpractice there..it's ok to call it wrong in real time (those type of plays are hard to call) but reviewing it and getting it wrong? no excuse for that

JJ could have managed this game better but he didn't cost them the game, come on now..

[ExplosionsInDaSky]

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Man imagine someone trying MJ like this back in the 90s lol

Jordan will always be the greatest in my opinion, but he wasn't 40 years old in the 90s. By the time he did hit 40 Kobe Bryant, McGrady, and Iverson all rocked him in games they faced against him. This is simply unfair to put this out there. What LeBron has done at this age is beyond impressive.

[pepe1991]

Being down 3-1 is tough, BUT:

1. Lakers regained homecourt advantage.
2. Lakers now only have to win one game on the road to win the series.
3. JJ figured out how to beat MIN for most of the game.

So I think this is 50/50.

You've rendered me speechless, Tony Robbins.

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Reminds me of the “we figured out Jokic” threads from a few years back

They figured he is better on their way to vacation

[ball_takes23]

Ant was a beast!! Love seeing his rise.

JJ blew the game.

1) Bad early challenge, never challenge a 50/50 bump call early, the refs hate changing their call. Easily could have used it later.
2) Playing 40 year old LeBron and Luka 46 minutes apiece is insane. The Wolves coming back the 2nd half of the 4th was extremely predictable.

The Lakers have 3 offensive creators with somewhat duplicative skills, it is insane not to give them all rests.

nah, Luka was on his WB impersonation. doing great things and just giving it back with really bad liveball turnovers and missed layups\bunnies

Luka and LBJ didn't look gassed or like they didn't have their legs under them. you can also be sure that LBJ wanted to stay on the court. Lakers have a few decent playable bench pieces, they're not the Nuggets but we saw the Nuggets do the same in game 4, because it's better to play ur starting five 42 mins and have 3 days of rest on a 2-2 count, then play them 37 and effectively end ur season going down 3-1

as for your first point, I disagree it was a 50\50 bump call. it was 100% a foul by Gobert (or a no-call) there was no foul by Reaves, at all.I was shocked the refs stuck by their initial awful call and they reasoned it by arguing that a.) Gobert came to a stop (he didn't) and b.) that Reaves initiated the first contact. rewatch those replays, Gobert 100% is the one who initiated the contact

moreover, JJ challenged it because it was an early 3rd foul on Reaves, which he was 100% sure would get overturned. refs committed malpractice there..it's ok to call it wrong in real time (those type of plays are hard to call) but reviewing it and getting it wrong? no excuse for that

JJ could have managed this game better but he didn't cost them the game, come on now..

Reaves third foul is not a good enough reason to burn your only challenge. Reaves has been ass most of this series anyways. And it’s well known that anytime there is contact between two players the refs are going to use it as an excuse not to overturn the call regardless of whether it’s the correct call or not.

And the nuggets example is not a great one because they blew a 20 point lead trying the same strategy. But I’m not gonna blame JJ too much for that because it’s likely they blow the lead no matter what.

[Tracymcgoaty]

Just play with some **** pride next game and dont get swept more or less. But i think they'll lay down. I think Lebron and Luka gonna be cooked next game.

Whatever happens i can see positives. We saw Reaves ain't it. He's tradeable. We dont need three creators. We need two way players.

We talked about it before. If he can net you a solid big man that legitimately fits with Luka you pull the trigger but ideally he is Dollar General Ginobili off your bench and gives you legit depth.

It all depends on what the Lakers do. In the past LeBron teams always traded the young guys and draft picks for vets, but Luka is just entering his prime and we saw what he did with a rookie Lively. The big question is if Rob will try to do some 'two-timelines' bullsh#% or actually build around Luka.

If Rob fails to build around Luka he needs to be fired asap. I agree Reaves is the one with the most trade value. If we can get a legit big do it asap.

But it all depends on if Lebron can still be at this level. I seriously had doubt about it. But my god am i thankful he still can because if Reaves was the 2nd option right now we'd lose by 25 every game.

If we can squeeze two more years out of Bron pull the trigger on Reaves. Yes in an ideal situation he comes off the bench as a 6th man. But creating on offense isn't the problem. We need to get bigger and more athletic. Reaves is expendable imo.

[art_tatum]

Yeah LeBron is still very very good. You trade some assets to upgrade this summer. The following summer all their bad contracts expire (Vincent, Kleber) plus Rui and DFS so they’ll actually have cap space to build around Luka. If LeBron doesn’t retire his next contract won’t be $50m/yr.

Is this a serious conversation? Doesn't all basketball players basically run, shoot, pass, rebound, play-d? Doesn't Kyrie overlap with Luka? Is the question really does LBJ take the spotlight away from Luka?

LBJ is still a top 15 player. You want Anthony Davis to go with Luka? Put Jokic next to Luka and you will give up 140 pts a game. Lakers just need to find other complementary pieces around the stars and you need multiple stars on a team.

Imagine thinking it's bad or "overlapping skillets" to have multiple playmakers that can dribble, run point, distribute the ball, shoot, rebound, etc. I wonder if the people who say this stuff legitimately believe what they're saying. That's art Tatum at his finest I suppose.

Or you know, actually look at results as these two supposedly top players will be bounced 4-1 in the first round. Changing role players won’t turn that into a championship when lebrons 41. Doesn’t take a child to see.

Both did better last year with different teammates.
Just looking at the results. I wonder if people who say this stuff legitimately believe what they are saying.

[art_tatum]

Should the lakers spend 3 years of Luka’s prime to cater to LeBron and his farewell tour or fully build around Luka?
They are both great players but their skill set overlaps too much. Next year LeBron will even be worse bc of age

Yeah LeBron is still very very good. You trade some assets to upgrade this summer. The following summer all their bad contracts expire (Vincent, Kleber) plus Rui and DFS so they’ll actually have cap space to build around Luka. If LeBron doesn’t retire his next contract won’t be $50m/yr.

Is this a serious conversation? Doesn't all basketball players basically run, shoot, pass, rebound, play-d? Doesn't Kyrie overlap with Luka? Is the question really does LBJ take the spotlight away from Luka?

LBJ is still a top 15 player. You want Anthony Davis to go with Luka? Put Jokic next to Luka and you will give up 140 pts a game. Lakers just need to find other complementary pieces around the stars and you need multiple stars on a team.

lollllllllll
put up a poll go ahead.
wonder who people would pick
Luka + LeBron who is about to lose in the first round in 5

Or Luka and mvp joker or AD who is the best defensive big man with elite offense in the nba.

You actually think majority will agree with you haha.

[Rust_Cohle]

Lakers in 7

[doogie_hauser]

At Lebron's Age, Luka's erratic form and the Lakers bench being Bumpkin, it's impossible to see then digging their way out of this hole.

Wolves will finish them in game 5

[Archx]

Luka and LBJ didn't look gassed or like they didn't have their legs under them. you can also be sure that LBJ wanted to stay on the court.

To be fair, ANT said they all looked gassed so Wolves literally just started running more. And apparently JJ asked them if they want a sub but both wanted to stay on the floor. I think JJ being a rookie coach will learn that sometimes players are their own worst enemies and you have to be smarter than that.

But yeah, Wolves are too versatile for the Lakers at the moment, Pelinka will have a lot of work to do.

[life_saver]

JJ deserves lot of criticism for not having a single sub throughout 2nd half...even a 1-2 minutes breather for Luka/Lebron would have helped things.

[The_Ghost_of_JB]

Being down 3-1 is tough, BUT:

1. Lakers regained homecourt advantage.
2. Lakers now only have to win one game on the road to win the series.
3. JJ figured out how to beat MIN for most of the game.

So I think this is 50/50.

I am not sure you entirely know what home court advantage is.

[Tracymcgoaty]

Overall though mega fun series to be honest. Not as a lakers fan of course but just basketball wise. Fantastic play. Kudos to the Wolves!

I just hope we dont lay down at home because that would be embarassing.

[Bergmaniac]

Is hand-checking legal again? Randle and Edwards were constantly using both hands to stop penetration.

It's always been legal in the playoffs in practice regardless of what the rule book says.

[Froob]

so when is Jj fired? one more year and then he’s blamed for roster not being that good?

[durden_tyler]

Any LA fans know why Knecht doesn't have any minutes?

He is not a bad player, I don't get why he doesn't sees any play.

He is a bad player. If his shooting is off, he contributes nothing.


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[Exp0sed]

Luka and LBJ didn't look gassed or like they didn't have their legs under them. you can also be sure that LBJ wanted to stay on the court.

To be fair, ANT said they all looked gassed so Wolves literally just started running more. And apparently JJ asked them if they want a sub but both wanted to stay on the floor. I think JJ being a rookie coach will learn that sometimes players are their own worst enemies and you have to be smarter than that.

But yeah, Wolves are too versatile for the Lakers at the moment, Pelinka will have a lot of work to do.

fair enough, I think even a gassed Luka and LBJ are superior for those few extra mins compared to whomever would have taken those mins

idk about Pelinka's work, this season after the trade always seemed like a punt. Rui has shown he can be that 4th-5th starter going forward, Reaves is a very nice complimentary #3. DFS is also ok and has a long chemistry with Luka, Gabe is a shooter, Vando is nice, Knecht is there too - all decent role players. the Lakers don't have a bad contract on their books. they just need a big and some tinkerings and as they have some assets, packaging some of those role players for an upgrade is def very doable

not that much for Pelinka to do...LBJ should do what he vowed never to do and if he wants to keep playing and breaking record, he should go for a much smaller contract. paying him 50m at age 40+ def complicated matters for Pelinka but he can have the ride of his life if he took 20M instead..

[UglyBugBall]

Being down 3-1 is tough, BUT:

1. Lakers regained homecourt advantage.
2. Lakers now only have to win one game on the road to win the series.
3. JJ figured out how to beat MIN for most of the game.

So I think this is 50/50.

I am not sure you entirely know what home court advantage is.

There are different ways to look at it, but 2 of the next 3 are homecourt games for LAL, and they only have to win one on the road. It seems likely that happens since they haven't won on the road yet, so it's bound to happen.

[Archx]

Luka and LBJ didn't look gassed or like they didn't have their legs under them. you can also be sure that LBJ wanted to stay on the court.

To be fair, ANT said they all looked gassed so Wolves literally just started running more. And apparently JJ asked them if they want a sub but both wanted to stay on the floor. I think JJ being a rookie coach will learn that sometimes players are their own worst enemies and you have to be smarter than that.

But yeah, Wolves are too versatile for the Lakers at the moment, Pelinka will have a lot of work to do.

fair enough, I think even a gassed Luka and LBJ are superior for those few extra mins compared to whomever would have taken those mins

idk about Pelinka's work, this season after the trade always seemed like a punt. Rui has shown he can be that 4th-5th starter going forward, Reaves is a very nice complimentary #3. DFS is also ok and has a long chemistry with Luka, Gabe is a shooter, Vando is nice, Knecht is there too - all decent role players. the Lakers don't have a bad contract on their books. they just need a big and some tinkerings and as they have some assets, packaging some of those role players for an upgrade is def very doable

not that much for Pelinka to do...LBJ should do what he vowed never to do and if he wants to keep playing and breaking record, he should go for a much smaller contract. paying him 50m at age 40+ def complicated matters for Pelinka but he can have the ride of his life if he took 20M instead..

Yeah agreed. Maybe a few tweaks will be enough, but one major thing is them getting a proper center. Luka had the luxury of Gafford/Lively after playing for years with Powell and they instantly went to the finals. Lakers with Rui at the center are not it lol.

Like you said, if Lebron wants to take a discount and Luka not being able to get full supermax anymore, will give Lakers some extra leverage with the cap.