The Lakeshow Review

The Los Angeles Lakers will square off against the Minnesota Timberwolves to open their 2025 postseason this Saturday April 19th. After finishing the season 50-32, good for third in the Western Conference, they will begin the chase for the franchise’s 18th championship. Their first round opponent will be the Minnesota Timberwolves, who at 49-33, finished 6th in the Western Conference. This should be an interesting matchup as both teams have strengths and weaknesses that may wind up being pivotal factors throughout the series. Let’s get into them.

One of the first things that immediately pops to mind when looking at these teams is the question of SIZE. Minnesota are very big, and tough up front with a frontcourt that features the likes of Rudy Gobert (who is the reigning and 4x Defensive Player of the Year), Julius Randle and Naz Reid. Namely Gobert, who gives the team a formidable defensive presence both in rim protection and in his versatility guarding the pick and roll. It remains to be seen how the Lakers will attempt to solve this size mismatch down low. Short of doing this, the Timberwolves will clearly enjoy an advantage on the boards and in the post which will be incumbent on the Lakers to neutralize. We saw, during last year’s playoffs that Luka Dončić is capable of having great success against Minnesota’s defense. With Dallas last season, Luka was relentless in looking for switches out in the perimeter against Gobert and attacking him in space. This resulted in a large bulk of Luka’s scoring, particularly late in games, when the score is close and the action slows down. We’ve also seen LeBron over the years have success at attacking Gobert, having the size and strength to finish over him at the rim.

On the other hand, the Lakers present certain challenges for Minnesota on the pick and roll. With a trio of Luka Dončić, Austin Reaves and Lebron James, the team has three ballhandlers capable of initiating and running screen and roll action at a high level. Dončić and Reaves in particular are capable of really hurting a defense if it chooses to drop on ball screens. If LA’s main perimeter stars are allowed to walk in to clean pull-up looks on ball screens then that is certainly an advantage for them. However, in order for the Lakers to successfully pull Minnesota’s bigs out of the paint, their pick and pop threats like Rui Hachimura and Dorian Finney-Smith will have to be on their game as far as shot making. Otherwise, the Wolves can simply stay at home on screens all night and congest the paint for LA’s ballhandlers.

However, Minnesota offers LA similar challenges when they have the ball. Anthony Edwards, in particular is an elite offensive player, who managed to finish in the top five in league scoring. He’s been playing great basketball, and has proven deadly both on the midrange and behind the arc, not to mention his downhill finishing and shot creation. Containing him will be a major hurdle for the Lakers, who outside of Finney-Smith and Jarred Vanderbilt, do not have defenders with the size and athleticism to guard Edwards. Finney-Smith is perhaps the team’s best option to put on Edwards, as he can also contribute on the offensive end when he gets it going. If LA elects to slot Vanderbilt on Edwards, they run the risk of Vando’s sub-par offense affecting the team’s gameplan on that end. There’s also the option of doubling, pre-rotating and loading up on the ball. In my opinion, this is a viable strategy, given how dangerous of a weapon Ant is, and how little playmaking the Wolves have outside of him. If the Lakers can successfully double and trap Edwards (particularly on iced screens on the sidelines), suddenly, his teammates are in a position where they have to make high level decisions with the ball. When those teammates are Naz Reid, Julius Randle and an older Mike Conley Jr., it’s worth the gamble. We may also see the Lakers elect to zone up occasionally, in order to have Ant encounter multiple defenders and dare other playmakers to beat them.

As it is usually the case, these high level playoff series more often than not come down to individual matchups. Minnesota does not have many options to slot on Luka, whose combination of size, strength and craftiness makes him a perennially tough cover. Then there’s the LeBron factor; similar to Luka, and even in his latter stages, LeBron James is still a tough cover for just about anybody. Minnesota’s best perimeter defender is Jaden McDaniels. It will be interesting to see who the Timberwolves elect to start him on, and if they rotate him on LeBron and Luka (and perhaps even Reaves), depending on who has it going on the Lakers’ side. Anthony Edwards is always a capable defender because of his physical gifts and athleticism, however he is also the team’s best offensive player and primary ballhandler/playmaker. So perhaps tasking him with guarding Luka or LeBron will wear him down, considering he also runs the offense. If Mike Conley is guarding Austin Reaves, then that is an area where LA can excel. There aren’t many other options to put Conley on, as the Lakers are a fairly big team, despite often playing without a true center.

Defensively, the Lakers will have major challenges in guarding Minnesota’s offense, who boast several three point threats such as Mike Conley, Donte DiVicenzo, Anthony Edwards, Nickeil Alexander-Walker and Naz Reid. This is why having crisp and disciplined defensive rotations will be key. The Lakers will also have to find a way to put Julius Randle in a position to take catch and shoot threes, where he has been much less effective. The team will have to continue its knack for fronting the post and negating deep post touches, as they’ve done throughout the year. Most importantly, they will have to find a way to consistently compete on the boards, as they will most likely continue playing their brand of positionless basketball with Jaxson Hayes sitting on the bench for extended stretches.

Ultimately, this series will come down to a battle of styles. Big versus positionless. Lakers like to overwhelm teams by spreading the ball out and relentlessly attacking in space, where Minnesota likes to bully and intimidate teams with their size. It remains to be seen how much Jaxson Hayes will play. As the Lakers tend to play their best basketball when they’re picking and popping teams into oblivion with DFS and Rui while wreaking havoc with Luka, LeBron and Reaves ball screen actions. If the Lakers can be effective in attacking Minnesota’s drop coverage, and manage to play one of their bigs off the court, then they are in a good spot. If Minnesota is only playing one big by the end of games, that is a good sign. It will mean the Lakers are effectively countering the Wolves’ size with their floor spacing.

Nevertheless, this will likely be a hard fought series, with both teams bringing major areas of strength to the table. There are no easy series in the Western Conference, and despite the 3-6 seeding difference, only one loss separates the Lakers (50-32) from the Timberwolves (49-33). I expect to see high level playoff action right off the jump, as both of these franchises have managed to reach the conference finals within the last two seasons and are both aiming for deep postseason runs. Let’s get these playoffs started. Go Lakers.