For the past week, all the attention has been on Luka Doncic’s postseason debut with the Los Angeles Lakers. Then there was the spotlight on LeBron James starting his 288th playoff game, which was already the highest in NBA history by 29 games (Derek Fisher had 259) and is still climbing.
Let’s be real: Even the 5.2-magnitude earthquake in LA on April 14 received more attention all week than the Lakers’ upcoming opponent —the very talented Minnesota Timberwolves.
Okay, whoever chooses Minnesota’s uniforms before each game nailed it for Game 1! The Timberwolves went with the black Jordan “statement” jerseys for the series opener, and they played with an underdog chip on their shoulders while beating the Lakers 117-95.
However, Minnesota’s game didn’t start particularly well. The game tipped off at 5:55 p.m. Pacific Standard Time, but the Wolves didn’t seem to start playing their brand of fast and physical basketball until 6:04 p.m.
At that moment in the first quarter, trailing 15-7, Anthony Edwards tapped into a different playoff gear. He started dribbling smooth and slick while attacking Rui Hachimura at the top of the perimeter. With a crisp crossover, Ant sent Hachimura falling backwards. It was so bad that it made the Lakers forward look like he was crawling around on the Crypto.com Arena floor hunting for Easter eggs a day early.
Every Timberwolves player suddenly started moving with Ant’s intensity and speed, as if it were contagious. That same energy on offense and defense extended into the second quarter, and the Wolves quietly went on a 23-15 run, taking their first lead at 31-30.
They never trailed again.
“I thought that after the opening few moments we were sluggish, excited, some guys kind of go through their first tank of gas pretty quick,” Timberwolves coach Chris Finch said. “But once we settled into the game-plan and picked up our pace and our decision making and the concepts that we’ve been focusing on. Things started to come together.”
Ant-Man flirted with a triple-double, scoring 22 points, grabbing eight rebounds, and dishing out nine assists. Edwards didn’t only lead with his play. He also offered inspiring and outspoken words during the game and in the locker room at halftime, and the Timberwolves looked even more intense at the start of the third quarter.
“How he’s been leading us, as young as he is, is kind of crazy to me. You’d think he’s 30,” said Naz Reid about the 23-year-old’s leadership. “Seriously, just how vocal he is. He wants to win, you can tell, he’s desperate.
“He wants his teammates to do well… him being the leader that he is; it just falls down the line. It kind of falls into my hands with the younger hands as well. Just inspiring each other, day by day, moments like this, like today, it’s huge.”
Reid was solid off the bench again and finished with a playoff career-high 23 points. Jaden McDaniels scored a team-high 25 points while shooting 80% from the field. McDaniels is now the first Timberwolves player in team history to score 25 or more points while shooting 80% or higher in a Game 1 on the road.
The game wasn’t flawless for the Timberwolves by any means. They started sluggish, and Doncic scored a game-high 37 points. The Lakers cut a 27-point deficit to 12 points in the fourth quarter, and James and Austin Reaves got going offensively in the second half.
However, the Timberwolves finished strong, are up 1-0, and stole a game on the road. They also made a playoff franchise-high 21 3-pointers while setting a fast pace and physical tone.
“[The Timberwolves] just played a lot better than us, played a lot harder than us,” Reaves added after the Game 1 loss. “They did all the things that we wanted to do.”
