Hey everyone, I’m Dan Woike and welcome to The Times Lakers newsletter, a weekly look into the slow descent madness of a writer who attended every single game the Lakers played this season. Oh, and there’s usually a dad rock song at the end.
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It’s been a long season that’s felt even longer thanks to the Lakers having like five different versions of their team from training camp until now. The first batch doesn’t matter any more. It’s who they are now. And who they are now is about to face a big test in the first round of the playoffs.
So I called some of my friends around the NBA, a Western Conference scout, an Eastern Conference scout, a West executive and a West assistant coach to ask them how they thought the Lakers and the Timberwolves would fare against one another. Each was granted anonymity to speak freely about the two rosters.
Here’s what they said:
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Lakers-Timberwolves breakdown
Minnesota’s biggest strengths
“Their strength on the whole is the defensive end. Ball pressure, size, and just, rebounding. Like they make you shoot over their length and then they rebound the ball,” the East scout said.
“We struggled getting the ball across half court at times,” the West coach said. “Their ball pressure is elite. …They speed you up. They pressure you. They’re active all over the place.”
“Who is going to guard (Anthony Edwards)?” the West exec said. “I think the Lakers’ lack of perimeter defense has been masked because they can be big, but Minnesota is big. But when you slow down and seek out matchups, they’ll target Austin (Reaves) and go at him.”
“Rudy (Gobert) is Rudy, and a lot of people don’t like him and he has his warts. But what Rudy does is protect the rim as good as almost anybody in the league. And obviously there’s some controversy with him. He’s been played off the floor in certain series. …But when you talk about defense, he does protect the rim as good as anybody in the league in the last decade. And what it does is it gives their perimeter defenders — the Nickeil Alexander-Walkers, the Jaden McDaniels, the Ants, DiVincenzos — he gives those guys the freedom to really just pick up and pressure ball handlers.”
The Lakers’ biggest strengths
“Luka frickin’ Doncic,” the West scout said with a laugh.
“Luka has a comfort level playing against bigs. And they’re huge. They’re big, athletic and the fly around. And Gobert is not a slouch. And I know Luka’s done him dirty in the past, but he’s in the fight,” the West coach said. “…If Conley’s out there, you’ve got to make them pay. On the other end, you have to make the ball find Gobert. …I don’t love Julius Randle’s matchup against them. L.A.’s full of big, physical forwards. I think he’s going to have a tough series creating his offense and offense for others. … I think the advantage the Lakers have is that they have three guys who are really high-level playmakers in the half court.”
“You can always have two of (Doncic, LeBron James, Reaves) on the floor, which is helpful,” the West executive said. “For a team that lacks depth past eight guys, that gets mitigated some in a playoff series where you can play guys 40 minutes and not feel like you’re running guys into the ground.”
“One of the things the Lakers do a really good job of is they’re gonna make McDaniels, Conley, Rudy Gobert, Jaylen Clark and Alexander-Walker shoot a lot of shots. They do a really good job of trying to force the guys like those guys to shoot. …They’re really smart,” the Eastern Conference scout said.
“Rudy isn’t going to punish smaller guys. I remember when LeBron, when he guarded Kendrick Perkins in the Finals,” the East scout said. “…what he’ll do is he’ll push Rudy out and they’ll meet him with their body on their path to the rim and force him to shoot four and six-foot little shots and he’ll miss ‘em and they’ll go away from it. And then they’ll probably end up going small. And Nas Reed’s not a good defender.”
“The Lakers have better players. Minnesota has dogs,” the West coach said. “….You have to find ways for LeBron to make Luka’s life easier and for Luka to make Austin’s life easier.”
The overall vibe
“I think it’s going to be a pretty good series. It’s going to be a little bit of a microcosm of Memphis-Golden State, good smalls vs, good bigs and which style is going to win out,” the West executive said.
My take
I think in talking with the experts I consulted, the expectation is for the Lakers to win a tough series. Minnesota’s defensive versatility on the perimeter combined with Anthony Edwards’ dynamic scoring are the biggest reasons of concern. The Lakers big three on offense, led by Doncic, are all incredibly smart players that have withstood real defensive challenges in the playoffs.
There’s a lot of confidence in the Lakers’ small-ball lineups league-wide, though people want to see the back end of their rotation do enough on offense to be able to play real minutes.
Again, the overall gist is that everyone expects this to be pretty competitive basketball between two good teams.
Song of the Week
Australian surf rock? Australian surf rock! It’s that time of year where I keep the suitcase close to the door, but this year, that’s more out of habit. By avoiding the play-in and securing the No. 3 seed, the Lakers will get 11 straight nights at home before heading to Minneapolis for Game 3 of the series. Then, it’ll be time for me to pack it up.
In case you missed it
How Austin Reaves earned his place among the Big 3 on the Lakers
How do the Lakers match up against the Timberwolves entering their playoff series?
Plaschke: JJ Redick for Dan Hurley was the Lakers’ trade of the year
Lakers effectively playing small ball with Luka Doncic at the helm
LeBron James is plastic, it’s fantastic: Mattel unveils Ken doll modeled after Lakers star
What feud? Shaq agrees to walk Dwight Howard out at Hall of Fame induction: ‘That’s my guy’