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

[Bolivar]

Where is that guy that replayed on every comment for first 50 pages?

Bob was banned for posting too much. No interest whatsoever to be bullied by mods. Enjoy.

[Shaka_Zulu]

Where is that guy that replayed on every comment for first 50 pages?

Bob was banned for posting too much. No interest whatsoever to be bullied by mods. Enjoy.

What did you think of the game?


And for the bolded, this basically me since 05:00 in the morning when game ended (I'm in sweden), just vibing:

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[thinktank]

Where is that guy that replayed on every comment for first 50 pages?

Bob was banned for posting too much. No interest whatsoever to be bullied by mods. Enjoy.

[bledredwine]

Bob was banned for posting too much. No interest whatsoever to be bullied by mods. Enjoy.

I just read through some of it dude, Bob, you’re hilarious. I wish you’d keep it up. Every post, you’re like “Actually LALwill steamroll the T Wolves, here’s why” for three paragraphs. Too funny just driving wolves fans bonkers

[Shaka_Zulu]

The Wolves shot 50% from 3 in game 1 yesterday and of course, won. Last season the only game the Wolves managed to win against Luka and his team in the playoffs was the game in which the Wolves shot 40%+ from 3.

Based off that strictly, if the Wolves want to win this series against Luka, they will need to have more 40%+ shooting games from 3. Otherwise Luka and his team will beat the Wolves in 5 once again.

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That Mavs team last year was massively different than this Lakers defensively. They had two athletic 7 footers paint defenders with one on at all times, and two wing defenders hounding/blitzing Ant/switching alot from clogging to closing down shooters. It was mainly Lukas matchup who was left open to shoot 3s in that series. Not many else.



This Laker team have virtually no paint presence so they over helped and overreacted to every drive to the point 80% of 3pt shots were open corner shots.


Wolves have too many 40% corner shooters to give up that many.

[firedavidkahn]

People bringing up 3 pointers are missing the bigger issue here, the Lakers didn't even get to 100 points.

[3toheadmelo]

Nice to see Randle have an efficient shooting game and played great defense. Held the Lakers to 5-14 FG (35%) and held Lebron to 2-7 FG (28%)

[Ethomasp31]

The Wolves shot 50% from 3 in game 1 yesterday and of course, won. Last season the only game the Wolves managed to win against Luka and his team in the playoffs was the game in which the Wolves shot 40%+ from 3.

Based off that strictly, if the Wolves want to win this series against Luka, they will need to have more 40%+ shooting games from 3. Otherwise Luka and his team will beat the Wolves in 5 once again.

Fortunately we aren't playing the 2024 Mavs. That Mavs team was actually, you know a good team with rim protection of Gafford and Lively. Also, Kyrie was significantly better than the 2nd best player on this Lakers team.

Unfortunately for you the Wolves won't have KAT, a career 40% 3point shooter, going 3/22 like he did in games 1-3 of the WCF. Also, unfortunate for the Lakers is that this is the series ANT wanted.

[firedavidkahn]

The Wolves shot 50% from 3 in game 1 yesterday and of course, won. Last season the only game the Wolves managed to win against Luka and his team in the playoffs was the game in which the Wolves shot 40%+ from 3.

Based off that strictly, if the Wolves want to win this series against Luka, they will need to have more 40%+ shooting games from 3. Otherwise Luka and his team will beat the Wolves in 5 once again.

Fortunately we aren't playing the 2024 Mavs. That Mavs team was actually, you know a good team with rim protection of Gafford and Lively. Also, Kyrie was significantly better than the 2nd best player on this Lakers team.

Unfortunately for you the Wolves won't have KAT, a career 40% 3point shooter, going 3/22 like he did in games 1-3 of the WCF. Also, unfortunate for the Lakers is that this is the series ANT wanted.

I'm salivating at then thought that if we beat the Lakers then in the last two years Ant will have sent Booker, KD, Jokic, LeBron and Luka packing from the play offs.

Talk about a resume builder!

[Bob8]

Bob was banned for posting too much. No interest whatsoever to be bullied by mods. Enjoy.

I just read through some of it dude, Bob, you’re hilarious. I wish you’d keep it up. Every post, you’re like “Actually LALwill steamroll the T Wolves, here’s why” for three paragraphs. Too funny just driving wolves fans bonkers

Vast majority of my posts were about Gobert being non factor and nobody stopping Luka. 100% correct, what I didn't expect is LeBron and AR couldn't create anything without Luka. If that continues Lakers can't win.

[thinktank]

I just read through some of it dude, Bob, you’re hilarious. I wish you’d keep it up. Every post, you’re like “Actually LALwill steamroll the T Wolves, here’s why” for three paragraphs. Too funny just driving wolves fans bonkers

Vast majority of my posts were about Gobert being non factor and nobody stopping Luka. 100% correct, what I didn't expect is LeBron and AR couldn't create anything without Luka. If that continues Lakers can't win.

You said Gobert would get played off the floor.

He was +14 in 25 minutes.

Luka was a street cone on D. -12.

Seems like you still don’t see that basketball is a team game that’s played on two ends of the floor.

Nico tried to tell you “defense wins championships”.

[Jta444]

Welcome to the West King James!

This ain’t the East you’re used to! You ain’t relaxing, jogging, resting your legs all the way to the Finals! Here, every series matters and takes away from you, you earn every game! Just ask Duncan, Kobe, Dirk, Curry, Durant, Kawhi with all their wars between each other year in year out just to get a championship.

No wonder you lasted this long facing weak East teams most of your career. Your legs were preserved without having to expend effort like you do now vs great West teams. We saw what happens to players like you who are all stats and dont play any D vs the West, you get swept just like in 2023 vs Nuggets

Remember 2016 when you had fresh legs after cakewalking through the East while Curry was walking through mud after going through the gauntlet West?

Your short time in the West would have been a preview of what your career would have been if you played in the West all your career just like many all-time greats.

2019 - missed playoffs
2020 - bubble
2021 - first round exit
2022 - missed playoffs
2023 - swept in WCF!
2024 - gentleman sweep in 1st round lmao

[pepe1991]

Bob was banned for posting too much. No interest whatsoever to be bullied by mods. Enjoy.

I just read through some of it dude, Bob, you’re hilarious. I wish you’d keep it up. Every post, you’re like “Actually LALwill steamroll the T Wolves, here’s why” for three paragraphs. Too funny just driving wolves fans bonkers

I am not even Wolves fan, but Wolves have rim protection and perimeter defense along with huge size advantage over Lakers.
Best bet Lakers have is to run Gober out and force Wolves to go small, but even "small", Wolves are still longer, faster and more athletic team.

Lakers have to shoot lights out to win this series and hope Gobert is as useless as some fans think (he isn't).
Also Lakers have to defend transition much better. But with who? Slow Luka, aiging Lebron, Hayes who should be out of a League ?

[bledredwine]

I just read through some of it dude, Bob, you’re hilarious. I wish you’d keep it up. Every post, you’re like “Actually LALwill steamroll the T Wolves, here’s why” for three paragraphs. Too funny just driving wolves fans bonkers

I am not even Wolves fan, but Wolves have rim protection and perimeter defense along with huge size advantage over Lakers.
Best bet Lakers have is to run Gober out and force Wolves to go small, but even "small", Wolves are still longer, faster and more athletic team.

Lakers have to shoot lights out to win this series and hope Gobert is as useless as some fans think (he isn't).
Also Lakers have to defend transition much better. But with who? Slow Luka, aiging Lebron, Hayes who should be out of a League ?

Bro, this is between YOU and BOB! Dont get me pulled into this lol

[Shaka_Zulu]

I just read through some of it dude, Bob, you’re hilarious. I wish you’d keep it up. Every post, you’re like “Actually LALwill steamroll the T Wolves, here’s why” for three paragraphs. Too funny just driving wolves fans bonkers

Vast majority of my posts were about Gobert being non factor and nobody stopping Luka. 100% correct, what I didn't expect is LeBron and AR couldn't create anything without Luka. If that continues Lakers can't win.

A win is a win, but if I’m Minnesota, I treat this like a loss. Lakers really figured something out putting Doncic on Edwards. That’s one of those somewhat small adjustments that can win a series.

Spoiler:

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[mademan]

The Wolves shot 50% from 3 in game 1 yesterday and of course, won. Last season the only game the Wolves managed to win against Luka and his team in the playoffs was the game in which the Wolves shot 40%+ from 3.

Based off that strictly, if the Wolves want to win this series against Luka, they will need to have more 40%+ shooting games from 3. Otherwise Luka and his team will beat the Wolves in 5 once again.

I said it earlier, but the Mavs got lucky last year. They gave a lot of good looks to a lot of good shooters in the Western playoffs as they hugged the paint and shut it down. It was a flawed strategy to protect 2 weak perimeter defenders, but it worked out for them. The Wolves are one of the best shooting teams in the league, and they were beating the Lakers perimeter defenders so easily and causing a lot of overhelp.

Problem with the Lakers is they dont have the same rim deterrance and have to send more help. Wolves are getting even better looks against them than they did against the Mavs. And they dont have Towns just forgetting how to shoot all of a sudden. And they won by 22 and were up 20 for the majority of the 2nd half. They didnt need to shoot this well to just win because they also defended the Lakers extremely well. This was a great 2 way win where they bullied the Lakers. You may say the shooting is unsustainable, but is the defense? The size and strength advantage? They did to the Lakers what they did to a small Suns team last year

[sikma42]

People bringing up 3 pointers are missing the bigger issue here, the Lakers didn't even get to 100 points.

Just the current state of basketball discourse.


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[MikRay]

The Wolves shot 50% from 3 in game 1 yesterday and of course, won. Last season the only game the Wolves managed to win against Luka and his team in the playoffs was the game in which the Wolves shot 40%+ from 3.

Based off that strictly, if the Wolves want to win this series against Luka, they will need to have more 40%+ shooting games from 3. Otherwise Luka and his team will beat the Wolves in 5 once again.

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That Mavs team last year was massively different than this Lakers defensively. They had two athletic 7 footers paint defenders with one on at all times, and two wing defenders hounding/blitzing Ant/switching alot from clogging to closing down shooters. It was mainly Lukas matchup who was left open to shoot 3s in that series. Not many else.



This Laker team have virtually no paint presence so they over helped and overreacted to every drive to the point 80% of 3pt shots were open corner shots.


Wolves have too many 40% corner shooters to give up that many.

Fluke shooting from Minnesota from 3s not going to happen again LA in 5 maybe 6

[Bob8]

I just read through some of it dude, Bob, you’re hilarious. I wish you’d keep it up. Every post, you’re like “Actually LALwill steamroll the T Wolves, here’s why” for three paragraphs. Too funny just driving wolves fans bonkers

Vast majority of my posts were about Gobert being non factor and nobody stopping Luka. 100% correct, what I didn't expect is LeBron and AR couldn't create anything without Luka. If that continues Lakers can't win.

You said Gobert would get played off the floor.

He was +14 in 25 minutes.

Luka was a street cone on D. -12.

Seems like you still don’t see that basketball is a team game that’s played on two ends of the floor.

Nico tried to tell you “defense wins championships”.

Tell me what was +/- of LeBron and AR? Where was Luka, when Wolves turned around game in Q2?

[Wolfgang630]

“The Wolves only made 6 more threes than the Lakers that’s why they lost”