The No. 3 seed Los Angeles Lakers looked woefully underprepared in their Game 1 loss to the No. 6 Minnesota Timberwolves on Saturday. The Lakers allowed the Wolves to outrebound them 44-38 as Minnesota escaped with a 117-95 win in front of 18,997 fans at crypto.com Arena.
The Lakers committed three more turnovers (13) to Minnesota’s (10) in the round one upset.
Los Angeles Lakers coach JJ Redick on the team’s effort
After Monday, Lakers head coach JJ Redick said the team’s practice practice was the best they’d had in months, per ESPN’s Dave McMenamin. Redick wasn’t happy with the effort the Lakers gave on Saturday, especially when it came to spacing.
“I think a lot of times you would hear that word and then you would think, ‘Oh, it’s the point guard calling a play,'” Redick said. “No, it’s just all of the normal stuff that we try to do and when we do it, we’re really good. Being organized is screening. Being organized is getting to the proper spacing. Being organized is getting the corners filled after makes and misses. That’s being organized…
“We just have to do a lot of things better, and it starts with playing harder and being organized.”
The Lakers will have a pivotal Game 2 to play on Tuesday night when they host the Wolves at 9:30 p.m. EST. They’ll need to stay organized to beat a hot Wolves team that looked energized to pull an upset on LeBron James and Luka Doncic on Saturday night.
Doncic was able to mask his inexperience working with the Lakers for much of the regular season after his trade from the Dallas Mavericks. But teams in the playoffs will expose cracks in Los Angeles’ chemistry.
For More Basketball News:
Follow me on Twitter at @JordanSig. You can also reach out to Jordan Sigler via email at [email protected]. To read more of our articles and keep up to date on the latest in college and NBA news, click here!
