Although Minnesota Timberwolves has made an early leadership in the Western Conference in the first round of playoff series, team supporters for a long time know that nothing is safe when it comes to confront Los Angeles Lakers after the season.
Seed 6 Timberwolves, on Saturday, the seed number 3 in the face of a convincing 117-95 wins after receiving the serial opener, the teams remained in Los Angeles for Game 2 on Tuesday.
In his search for their first appearance in the NBA Finals, Timberwolves’s best chance for a title came when they reached the Western Conference finals against the Lakers in 2004.
With the advantage of the home field in this series, Wolves divided the first two games before 4-2 in the top seven games.
Minnesota has already guaranteed a division of the first two competitions in Los Angeles, but history shows that Wolves will not accept Game 2, even if it is a series that will move to twin cities later.
“We have a great group of men, but (Saturday), I did not learn that I learned in the training camp,” Wolves star Anthony Edwards said after receiving 22 points with eight rebounds and nine assists in the game 1.
Minnesota disappointed from 32-29 to February before closing the normal season in a 17-4 race after returning from Julius Randle groin injury. Randle scored 16 points on Saturday, Jaden McDaniels 13 in 11 of the team led the team with 25 points and added nine rebounds.
“I was playing safely,” Mcdaniels said. “I know we didn’t win the game when we last played, so we’re trying to get one in the playoffs.”
McDaniels referred to the Lakers’ victory of 111-102 home against the wolves on February 27th. Luka Doncic was just one of the four normal season matches between the teams after being traded to Los Angeles.
Doncic was everywhere in the first quarter of the game 1 and scored 16 points in 12 minutes at the opening. The game finished with the highest 37, but Los Angeles hit only 39.8 percent from the ground, LeBron James had 19 points and Austin Revees 16.
Reves had only two points in the first half and any of them in the fourth quarter.
The Lakers was managed with eight points and Wolves increased by 28-21 at the end of the first quarter before taking over the game using a physicality that Lakers could not match.
“When they started to play with many push and physics, we didn’t respond immediately,” Lakers head coach JJ Redick said. He said.
The team, which is worried about the experienced Lakers to be caught unprepared by an opponent’s game style, was not in panic mode during the time between the games.
“Maybe it’s a playoff game to get an idea for this, and know what kind of intensity, physicality will be brought to the game.” He said. “But it’s just the way he’s playing. So we must be prepared for Tuesday night.”
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