The Los Angeles Lakers’ season is over, courtesy of a Minnesota Timberwolves team that had them on their back foot for much of their first-round series.
The Timberwolves beat the Lakers, 103-96, on Wednesday to finish off the series in five games, propelled by the best playoff game of Rudy Gobert’s career. The four-time Defensive Player of the Year posted a playoff career-high 27 points on 12-of-15 shooting and 24 rebounds.
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The Lakers showed some fight in a game they entered after running their top five players ragged in Game 4. They were down by double digits at multiple points in the first half, but a third-quarter rally gave them their first lead of the game. It was close from there until the Timberwolves pulled away with one last run in the fourth quarter.
Minnesota won the game despite a cold night from 3-point range, shooting 7 of 47 as a team from deep. Having Gobert available and productive on the inside helped make up for that.
The Timberwolves will advance to face the winner of the Golden State Warriors-Houston Rockets series in the Western Conference semifinals. The Warriors currently lead the series 3-2, but missed an opportunity to close out the series on the road earlier Wednesday.
Rudy Gobert feasts against small Lakers lineup
There’s no denying the Timberwolves center entered this game, or this postseason, with a reputation when it comes to performing in the playoffs. Never an offensive dynamo, Gobert has had a tendency to be significantly more valuable in the regular season than the postseason. That extended into this series, with Gobert posting only 14 points combined in the first four games with 4-of-13 shooting.
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Then the Lakers handed him a fairly ideal set of circumstances. Head coach JJ Redick said before the game that he would not play starting center Jaxson Hayes in Game 5, and backup center Alex Len didn’t appear in the game either. No player in the Lakers’ starting lineup was taller than 6-foot-8.
With a significant size advantage over every player in front of him, the 7-foot-1 Gobert suddenly became a go-to player on offense for Minnesota.
Anthony Edwards, however…
While one of the Timberwolves’ All-Stars was thriving, another was struggling.
After posting 43 points in Game 4, Anthony Edwards struggled heavily throughout the game. He finished with 12 points on 5-of-19 shooting, though he also chipped in 11 rebounds, eight assists and three steals.
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On the Lakers’ side, it wasn’t an easy night for Austin Reaves either, with 12 points on 5-of-14 shooting.
Luka Dončić sustains apparent back injury on hard foul
Dončić played the second half in some measure of pain after a painful end to the first half.
The Lakers star took a hard foul from Donte DiVincenzo and immediately started holding his back. The play was reviewed for a flagrant but was deemed a common foul, leaving Dončić to shoot two free throws and then exit for the locker room with a minute left in the second quarter.
Fortunately for the Lakers, Dončić was back out there at the start of third quarter, but he could still be seen grabbing his back at times. Dončić finished the game with a game-high 28 points, nine assists and seven rebounds.
Maxi Kleber makes an incredibly timed Lakers debut
One previously forgotten member of the Dončić trade was Maxi Kleber, the Dallas Mavericks’ shooting big man who was out at the time of the trade with a foot fracture. Kleber occupied the Lakers’ sideline while recovering for the rest of the season … until Wednesday.
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Announced to be available before the game, Kleber entered the game in the first quarter, with his team down double digits in an elimination game. He finished the game with two points in five minutes.
That the Lakers played a 33-year-old longtime bench player over either member of their center tandem in Hayes and Len shows how much the team got pushed to its back foot over the course of this series, and by Gobert in Game 5.
JJ Redick entered game with chip on his shoulder
Another episode that showed the Lakers’ headwinds was the end of Redick’s pregame news conference.
After revealing Kleber was available, confirming he wouldn’t play Hayes and declining to reveal a starting lineup, Redick was asked if he would discuss substitutions with his assistant coaches after playing the same five players for all of the second half in Game 4. The Lakers coach was not happy with the premise of the question, testily stating he always discusses substitutions with his assistants during timeouts.
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