Minnesota Timberwolves aim to ‘figure it out’ after Game 2 playoff loss to Los Angeles Lakers

LOS ANGELES – Anthony Edwards had an ice pack around his right shoulder postgame, the product of a collision on a screen as the Los Angeles Lakers blitzed the Timberwolves early in a 94-85 loss Tuesday night in Game 2 of their NBA playoff series.

“I can’t even remember what happened, for real,” Edwards said of the Lakers’ fast start Tuesday, a burst that had the Wolves already down 34-15 when the first quarter ended.

Nickeil Alexander-Walker sat at his locker with a blank stare on his face for several moments, ice packs on both knees. After a bit, Alexander-Walker took off those ice packs and threw them with some force to the ground.

These were the byproducts of a physical and frustrating night for the Wolves, who were behind a motivated Lakers team from the opening minutes and didn’t have the offensive firepower to come back.

“It’s just about us,” Alexander-Walker said. “All season long, it’s been about us. We can give credit to like, oh yeah, they played physical, they played hard. Sure, but at the end of the day, we can control our input and how we approach the game. So, I’ll say it’s just us.”

The Wolves knew the Lakers would come back with a lot of energy and play with more physicality than they showed in Game 1. But the Wolves looked unprepared for it, and instead of locking in and making the necessary adjustments in time, they looked shellshocked and spent too much energy griping about the officiating.

“No answer. If I answer, they’re gonna fine me, so no answer,” Edwards said of the officiating. “I don’t know what was going on out there. Yeah, I don’t know, man. They say they saw what they saw, and they call what they call. Gotta live with it.”

Added Mike Conley: “There’s been some times where we lose our minds, rightfully so, and there’s been times where we’re just overly concerned with it and giving up fast-break points on the other end. There’s got to be a much stronger effort to leave the refs alone and keep playing through it, because we know we’re going to be kind of behind the eight ball in that aspect of the game. So what. Go play through it and figure it out.”

They figured it out too late Tuesday. Their offense was anemic, especially compared with Game 1, when they hit 21 three-pointers thanks to good ball movement. That dried up, and they were just 5-for-25 in Game 2. No player scored in double figures outside of Edwards (25 points) and Julius Randle (27 points), and the Wolves shot 38%. Edwards said it was hard for him to figure out how the Lakers were defending with heavy gap help.

“This was the first time I’ve seen this one. Every time I caught the ball at the top, it was kind of like it was in a zone,” Edwards said. “Even when you cut guys through, they just stayed. So, I got to be ready to make those reads.”

The Wolves were down 19 at the end of one quarter, down as many as 22 overall and never got closer than nine the rest of the way. Luka Doncic had 16 of his 31 points in the first quarter, while LeBron James scored 21 points in the game on 8-for-19 shooting. Doncic added 12 rebounds and nine assists. James had 11 rebounds and seven assists.

The Wolves bench, which had been so key to its Game 1 win, dealt with foul trouble (Naz Reid and Donte DiVincenzo each played around it), and the shotmaking wasn’t there for them or for some starters. Outside of Randle and Edwards, the rest of the team was 11-for-40 (28%). Coach Chris Finch said he thought the team turned down some open three-point looks, but other times the offense wasn’t good enough to produce those looks.

“I thought early on and throughout most of the game we just didn’t make the right play when it was in front of us,” Finch said.

Conley said it felt like the Wolves were “a beat off” against the Lakers defense throughout the game. Alexander-Walker also felt that way. The result was the Wolves never felt like themselves.

BOXSCORE: Lakers 94, Wolves 85

“Just a step behind the whole night,” he said. “Especially after the way Game 1 went, starting a step behind feels like starting 10 steps behind. So, the work you have to do to make up for it is amplified, more exposed, magnified, you could say.”

The upshot is the Wolves’ supporting cast can’t play much worse than it did, and the Wolves still only lost by nine. The defense has held the Lakers to fewer than 100 points in both games. The Wolves will keep that in mind as they board their plane Wednesday for Game 3 on Friday back in Minnesota.

“We found a way to get our defense back tight,” Edwards said. “So yeah, I feel like we should be going into Game 3 smiling.”