LOS ANGELES — This one wouldn’t ever hang in the Louvre, especially the fourth quarter.
But what’s the old line? They don’t ask how, but how many. And the Lakers, who were embarrassed by the Minnesota Timberwolves in Game 1 of their best-of-seven series on Saturday, atoned for that atrocity Tuesday night – atoned enough, anyway, to send the series to Minneapolis tied, 1-1.
The Lakers’ 94-85 Game 2 victory featured a fourth quarter in which both teams staggered and stumbled to the finish line. The teams combined for 33 points in the fourth quarter, with the Lakers scoring 13 on 5-for-9 shooting from the field and an 0-for-5 performance from 3-point territory.
That’s the kind of game these teams played against each other in splitting their four regular-season meetings. It’s the type of game at least one of these teams played in Game 1 of this series on Saturday night, a 117-95 Minnesota rout in which, in Austin Reaves’ estimation, the Lakers “got punked.”
Or, as first-year Lakers coach JJ Redick put it, “You know, we weren’t ready for a rock fight to start in Game 1.”
They should have been.
Tuesday night was evidence of a lesson learned. The Lakers trailed for a total of 56 seconds at the start of the game. They led by 22 on five different occasions in the second quarter. Later on, after the Wolves had cut into the lead, Redick called a timeout and delivered an ear-blistering lecture as a reminder to not let up.
The Lakers might have had lots of reasons to feel good about themselves going into the postseason. They reached 50 victories for the first time since the 2019-20 COVID-interrupted season and earned home-court advantage in the first round for the first time since 2012. But they’re playing a team that won 49 games itself and stole that home advantage in Game 1, a team that was actually picked by some to win this series. That’s how rugged the Western Conference was this season.
The difference between Game 1 and Game 2 from the Lakers’ standpoint?
“I just thought we played hard,” Reaves said. “Every single game in the regular season, postseason, they (the Wolves) played hard.”
His point: If you don’t match their physicality, they can embarrass you.
“The one thing that you can always go back to is to compete as hard as you possibly can every possession. And I feel that’s what we did tonight,” Reaves said.
The symbol of that Laker work ethic might have been Rui Hachimura. The 6-foot-8 forward got popped in the nose, left the game to get fitted for a mask, tried to play with it but had to discard it and try another one, but he wound up playing 34:14 and contributing 11 points, five rebounds and two steals.
The mask didn’t look much better than the Lakers’ fourth quarter offense, but each somehow got the job done.
“I thought Rui was big for us tonight,” Reaves said. “He didn’t get that many shots. (He was 4 for 9, and 0 for 2 from 3-point range.) But the physicality that he played with on the defensive end, even after getting hit in the nose, whatever the situation is, he came back out and it didn’t look like anything other than him wearing a mask. He was out there competing his (rear) off every single possession.”
Maybe this was a necessary reminder that you don’t float your way to the 16 victories necessary to lift the Lawrence O’Brien Trophy. There will be traps and adverse conditions along the way, and the team that not only adjusts adequately but draws on grit and perseverance – and, let’s face it, good old stubbornness – stands the best chance of still standing at the end.
The fun is only beginning. But to extend it the Lakers will have to win at least one game in Minneapolis’ Target Center, where they were 0-2 in the regular season. They lost 102-80 there on Dec. 2 and 97-87 on Dec. 13, while winning both meetings in downtown L.A. But also remember that three of the four games in the season series were played before the Luka Doncic trade, and when the Lakers beat the Wolves, 111-102, in L.A. on Feb. 27, Rudy Gobert and Julius Randle did not play for Minnesota.
Doncic averaged 32.4 points, 9.6 rebounds and 8.2 assists in Dallas’ five-game victory over Minnesota in last year’s Western Conference finals. It’s safe to assume the Minnesota fans will be ready for Doncic when this series resumes Friday, and it won’t be polite.
“It’s going to be tight, I remember that,” Doncic said of the environment there, noting that the place can get “very loud” when the home team goes on a run. “It’s going to be very tough. I experienced that, and it wasn’t easy. So we got to stay together.”
But there’s one thing Doncic heard Tuesday night in L.A. that he won’t hear in Minnesota. Early in the game, a group of fans restarted the “Thank you, Nico” chant. It could be interpreted as either sincerely thanking or trolling Dallas general manager Nico Harrison, who made the trade with Rob Pelinka that brought Luka to L.A. and changed the trajectory of the Lakers.
Considering the revelations in an ESPN story this week on how things collapsed in Dallas, maybe Harrison should be happy that somebody’s appreciative of his efforts.
jalexander@scng.com
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