Los Angeles – When Luka Doncic scored 16 points in the first quarter of her debut in the playoffs with her new team, the sand of the downtown Los Angeles Lakers crepated with enthusiasm of the fans who probably imagined dream scenarios for her team and her new superstar this spring.
The Timberwolves made sure that Dream became ugly quite quickly in game 1. They also left the Lakers looking for ways to help Doncic before Minnesota escapes with this first round series.
Doncic scored 37 points and eight rebounds, but it was not enough to counteract the balanced score of the wolves in Your 117-95 victory Saturday night.
After an impressive beginning because of their Slovenian superstar, the Lakers were embarrassing thoroughly during their first postseason game 1 against a complete sand at home since 2012. Los Angeles did not demonstrate the hardness necessary to hang with the physical and veteran wolves in defense, and only Doncic produced an impressive game on offense.
The combination led to a deficit of 27 points in the second half and a laugh of a victory for the Wolves, who immediately took advantage of the advantage of Homecourt in the series after finishing only one victory behind the Lakers in the regular season.
“They are a great opponent,” said JJ Redick after losing his debut at the playoff coach. “They are one of the best teams in basketball. It does not mean that our boys were not ready to resist basketball at the playoff level. We were mentally ready, and I thought that our spirit was correct … I am not sure that we were physically ready, if that makes sense. When they start playing with a lot of thrust and physical, we really could not respond to that.”
The upper physicality of Minnesota was obvious for long periods, even with Rudy Gobert playing only 24 minutes. But the wolves took control and held it largely because they reached 21 triples in just 42 attempts.
The Lakers lack a great dominant man after exchanging Anthony Davis, and Jaden McDaniels took advantage of that while scoring 25 points. But that does not explain the bad effort of the Lakers in the perimeter, where they have enough athletes to protect most teams competently when they make the effort.
“I think it was physical (Y) were hitting many 3s,” said Doncic. “We have to limit their 3s, especially their lasers. We weren’t physical. They were running. They were getting everything they wanted and we have to be better.”
Doncic knew that it was applied personally in the offensive wing despite its total striking points: the talented pin only had an assistance, its lowest total since game 1 of the NBA finals last season.
LeBron James also had a little impressive beginning for his 18th postseason of the NBA, scoring 19 points and going 1 by 5 in 3 -point attempts, while only producing three assists and five rebounds in 36 minutes.
James, 40, cannot be shaken by a single defeat, and focused on clear areas to improve game 2 on Tuesday. The transition defense of the Lakers lamented particularly, which allowed 25 fast rest points.
“Throughout the season we did a great job by not allowing the teams to get a fast break point after a fast break point,” James said. “We already know how dangerous they are, so by giving the teams the opportunity to obtain those easy points, it will be difficult to invent that.”
The multitude of the Lakers remained in the game throughout the night, but the huge deficit in the second half obviously cushioned the emotion. The Minnesota star, Anthony Edwards, was not exactly elogante on that crowd after the wolves reach victory, neither
“An atmosphere like this is easy for me, man,” said Edwards. “I have played in Denver, man. Denver is a difficult place to play on the way. So I mean, it was nothing.”
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