Timberwolves open preseason with 124-107 victory over Lakers

PALM DESERT, CALIF. – Josh Minott scored 22 points on 9-for-11 shooting, Rob Dillingham added 21 points in his professional debut and the Timberwolves opened their preseason with a 124-107 victory over the Los Angeles Lakers on Friday night.

Luka Garza scored 20 points on 7-for-13 shooting for the Wolves, who did not play Anthony Edwards or newcomers Julius Randle and Keita Bates-Diop. The third player they acquired from the Knicks for this week’s trade of Karl-Anthony Towns, Donte DiVincenzo, played 10 minutes, hit all three of his three-point attempts and scored 11 points.

Minott went 4-for-6 from three-point range in a team-high 29 minutes as the Wolves hit 15 of 37 three-point attempts. First-round picks Dillingham and Terrence Shannon Jr. both played more than 24 minutes as well. Shannon scored 14 points.

It was also the first preseason game for Lakers rookie Bronny James, the 19-year-old son of LeBron James, who sat out along with fellow Los Angeles star Anthony Davis. The two walked to midcourt right before tipoff to greet Edwards, their Olympic teammate for the gold medal-winning United States team in Paris over the summer.

The game was played at Acrisure Arena, the 22-month-old home of the American Hockey League’s Coachella Valley Firebirds, located about 120 miles east of Los Angeles’ Crypto.com Arena. It also marked the first game for J.J. Redick, the former NBA player and television analyst hired by the Lakers to replace Darvin Ham as coach.