Luka Doncic scored 16 of his 31 points in a dominating first quarter and added 12 rebounds and nine assists as the Los Angeles Lakers evened their Western Conference first-round playoff series with a 94-85 victory over the visiting Minnesota Timberwolves on Tuesday.
LeBron James added 21 points and 11 rebounds, Austin Reaves scored 16 points and Rui Hachimura had 11 as the No. 3 seed Lakers rebounded from a 22-point loss in the series opener Saturday.
“It was just a question of if we would be more physical or not and I think we showed that,” Doncic said. “We were there for 48 minutes. We got up big in the first quarter, we learned from the last game and we just stuck with it.”
Game 3 is Friday in Minneapolis, where the Timberwolves went 2-0 against Los Angeles in the regular season.
Julius Randle scored 27 points and Anthony Edwards added 25 for the Timberwolves, who shot 38 percent from the field after shooting 51.2 percent in Game 1, when they were also 21 of 42 from 3-point range. Minnesota hit a season-low five 3-pointers on 25 attempts in Game 2 and scored its fewest points this season.
“It seemed like every time I caught the ball, they kind of went into a zone in a sense,” Edwards said. “It was kind of confusing at times, but we’ll watch film and be ready (for Game 3).”
Jaden McDaniels finished with eight points for the Timberwolves after he scored a team-high 25 in Game 1.
Los Angeles roared out to a double-digit lead less than seven minutes into the game. The Lakers were up 34-15 at the end of the first quarter, shooting 55 percent while holding Minnesota to 27.8 percent.
Hachimura went to the locker room in the first quarter after he was inadvertently hit in the face by the Timberwolves’ Naz Reid. He returned midway through the second quarter, wearing a protective mask.
The Lakers led by 22 points in the first half and were up 58-43 at halftime.
“When we were organized in the right spots, we ran some good stuff and frankly, I thought we missed some open 3s,” Los Angeles coach JJ Redick said. “(Reaves) got some great looks. Other than a couple of disorganized plays, we played good offense. As a coach you could see it coming. I just wanted to make sure everybody was on the same page.”
Minnesota got within 11 points, at 62-51, with 7:48 remaining in the third quarter before Los Angeles went on a 9-0 run for a 71-51 advantage.
The Timberwolves pulled within single digits at 86-77 with 6:27 remaining, on a fadeaway from McDaniels. It was the closest they had been since 15-8 in the first quarter.
The Wolves were again within nine points, at 90-81, when James had a steal and a coast-to-coast layup for a 92-81 lead with 2:40 left.
“We had some guys play well individually but we didn’t connect the dots tonight,” Minnesota coach Chris Finch said. “That’s what we had been doing so well. But it was a super physical game.”
–Field Level Media
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